


Twist Serve

by Dextrousleftie



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Anal Sex, Bathroom Sex, Fluff and Angst, Gay Sex, Love, Lust, M/M, Oral Sex, Romance, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-15 18:02:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 39,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5794366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dextrousleftie/pseuds/Dextrousleftie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Momo's wanted Echizen for years, but he's oblivious. Will a little help from the wily Fuji bring them together at last?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

There were two things in life that Takeshi Momoshiro wanted. The first he’d gotten at an early age, when he’d begun to play tennis competitively. The second – well, the second had eluded him. He’d wanted it since he was thirteen years old, and here he was in his second year of college and he still didn’t have it. 

The second thing that Momoshiro wanted was Echizen Ryoma. He’d known that there was something between himself and the serious-faced little prodigy from the first moment that their eyes had locked. An understanding had passed between them, an acknowledgement of a strange sort of bond between the two that had manifested in a deep friendship. But Momo had wanted more than friendship from Echizen for a long time. Ever since he first started to have sexual urges and realized that he preferred boys to girls, in fact. 

He would have liked Ryo to be his first lover, but that wasn’t in the cards. Echizen remained indifferent to the whole concept of sex all through their junior high and high school years together. Hell, he didn’t even seem to notice that most of the rest of the world existed. They were there only as his potential opponents, nothing else. Momo had lost his virginity with another junior during high school, and he’d had a few one time sexual encounters since then. But much to his dismay, he discovered that sleeping with other people made him feel that he was somehow cheating on Echizen, despite the fact that the serious boy with the bronze-gold eyes had never shown any interest in his best friend in a sexual way. It was absolutely frustrating, and Momo had finally given up on the whole thing altogether. While he wasn’t pleased about being celibate, it was still better than feeling bad about having sex with people who weren’t Ryoma.

Still, he held onto hope. He seemed to be one of the few people that Echizen actually SAW; he had never looked through Momo in that way he had, as though he were transparent. And he enjoyed their close friendship, even as he was sometimes driven crazy by his beloved friend’s cluelessness. Perhaps, one day, when Echizen finally began to take an interest in sex, he’d start to feel about Momo the way that Momo felt about him. It was a hope that Momo had clung to for all of these years. He refused to believe that his cause was hopeless.

Because he was a year older than Ryoma, he’d started his first year of high school without him. That had been bad enough; at least he got to see Echizen after school, when they would meet to play against each other at the municipal courts or on the make-shift street court. And Ryo would come over to Momo’s house afterward, so that they could study together. But Momo’s first year of college had been pure hell. He only got to see Echizen on weekends sometimes when he went home to visit his parents, and he talked to him on the phone occasionally. These conversations weren’t exactly scintillating; Ryoma was at best a terrible conversationalist. This didn’t bother Momo when they were together in person. Echizen’s silences were full of meaning. But over the phone it was a total wash, and so he restricted himself to only calling his friend once in awhile. While he wasn’t exactly lonely, as he was attending a college with all of the other Seigaku Regulars because it had the best tennis program in the country, he still missed his little friend intensely.

But joy of joys – he was starting his second year this week, and Echizen was enrolled as a first year. He’d been rather disgruntled about the whole thing – his dad had put his foot down and told his son in no uncertain terms that he was going to attend college before he turned pro. Momo could have kissed the perverted monk when Echizen revealed this fact to him. 

Perhaps he’d finally get his wish. Echizen was eighteen now, and had finally put on some height. He was as tall as Fuji, which wasn’t very tall but was miles above how short he’d been when Momo first met him. And he’d filled out a bit, too. His shoulders were broader than they used to be, and he looked more like an adult than a little kid. Just the sight of him made his old friend salivate silently. Surely Echizen not only looked like a young adult, but was also starting to feel adult urges?

Alas for poor Momo, Echizen seemed as oblivious as ever of everything that wasn’t tennis. While Momo was blissfully happy to be around his friend once more, he was also being driven slowly and steadily crazy. Everything that Ryo did was a turn on for him. Even the way he held his racket. Watching him play had become a kind of torture, because he moved with such cat-like grace and power. Momo imagined that that was how he’d be in bed, as well. He was losing his good nature, as his frustration mounted higher and higher.

 

He was sitting on a bench in the locker room one day, a few weeks after school had started, moping dispiritedly. It didn’t help that the Golden Pair were billing and cooing together a few feet away, happily oblivious of anyone else in the room. They were utterly sweet together, but Momo could have done without seeing them just now. Watching a happy couple only made him feel more lonely and depressed.

“Momo-chan! Why the long face?” a voice sang above his head. He looked up to see Fuji standing next to the bench, beaming down at him in that somewhat eerie way that he had. Momo tried to conjure up a smile, with only limited results.

“It’s nothing, Fuji-senpai. I’m just not feeling well, is all,” he lied. He wasn’t about to admit the truth to Fuji, who sometimes seemed more than a tad crazy. 

“Mmm-hmmm. Let me guess – you’re ‘sick’ of being ignored by a certain delightful little freshman, aren’t you?” Fuji said. Momo gaped at him. Fuji only smiled wider, tilting his head a little in a pleased way at having scored a hit.

“How did you know…?" began Momo, then realized just how much he’d admitted and shut his mouth.

“Oh, please. A blind man could see the way you look at him. And our dear Ochibi is many things, but discerning about sex and attraction is not one of them.”

Momo sighed, his shoulders slumping. Fuji had hit the problem right on the head with his usual perceptiveness. It just made him feel worse to have someone else point it out to him. Fuji patted his shoulder comfortingly, a move that made Momo jump in shock. “Don’t feel so bad, Momo-chan. You’re not the only one with a problem,” Fuji said. Something in his voice made Momo look up into Fuji’s face enquiringly. But as usual, he couldn’t read what the prodigy was thinking at all.  
“Actually, perhaps there’s a way to kill two birds with one stone. Maybe we could help each other out.” Fuji said thoughtfully.

“Huh? How?" Momo asked, puzzled.

Fuji sat down on the bench next to Momo, a little too close for the purple-eyed boy’s comfort. “Well, it’s like this,” he began. “I believe that both of our problems could be solved if we become lovers.”

Momo gaped at him. He felt a spurt of fear at the smile of Fuji’s face, and he prepared to bolt out of the locker room as fast as his feet could carry him.

Fuji burst out laughing at the look on his face. “I’m sorry, Momo-chan!” he gasped, waving a hand in the air as he fought for breath. “I just couldn’t help myself!” he went off into another bout of laughter, holding his sides. Momo didn’t know whether to feel relieved or put out that Fuji was making fun of him.

When he finally recovered, Fuji said: “Actually, my plan is pretty close to what I just said. Only, instead of actually becoming lovers, I propose that we PRETEND to be lovers.”

“How is that going to help?!” blurted out Momo, wondering internally what kind of twilight zone he’d wandered into.

Fuji cocked his head as he smiled most wickedly at a confused Momo. “My plan involves making two parties jealous,” he said happily. “Echizen and Tezuka. And even if it only works for one, at least one of our problems will be solved.”

“Tezuka?” Momo said, furrowing his brows. “What’s he got to do with this?”

Fuji sighed and shook his head at Momo’s naiveté. “Silly boy, we’ve been lovers for years. Didn’t you know?”

Momo’s jaw dropped nearly to the floor. “No!” he yelped, stunned.

“Be that as it may, we’ve been together since our senior year in high school. But lately he’s been taking me for granted. I know that part of it is that this is our senior year and he has a huge load of schoolwork. But whenever I make time to be with him, he’s always so busy or distracted that I might as well not be in the room. And we haven’t…” he stopped, and made an eloquent gesture with one slender hand. “You know…for over a month. I’m almost as frustrated as you, Momo-chan. And there is no way that I’m going to take this lying down. If he thinks that I’m going to go for the rest of the year without getting laid, he is seriously defective. This plan of mine will either work, and put his attention back on me where it belongs, or it won’t, and it will tell me that I’m just wasting my time on him. Either way, I’ll have some resolution.”

“But how will this help me where Echizen’s concerned?” asked Momo.

“Hmm. Well, by making him aware that you like guys and that you’ve been taken by somebody else, it might start the wheels in his little head spinning. Get him started thinking about things. If not, you haven’t lost anything, since I don’t predict that there’s any other way that he’ll start paying attention to you in the near future.”

Momo nearly groaned aloud. While Fuji’s plan seemed insane, he had a valid point. Ryoma showed no signs of becoming aware of him as more than just a friend, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could stand this situation as it stood. So maybe he should just give Fuji’s crazy plan a try, because what could it hurt? You, a voice whispered in the back of his head, because Tezuka might skin you alive. But he tried to ignore that little voice of reason because he was that desperate.

“So what’ll we do?" he asked. 

Fuji beamed to see that Momo had decided to go along with his plan. “We’ll stage a very public display of affection, right out where everybody – and by everybody I mean Tezuka and Echizen – can see it. I hope you don’t mind kissing me, Momo-chan. I assure you that you’ll have a good time.”

Momo gulped in horror at the thought of making out with Fuji, especially in a public place. But certain parts of him much lower that his brain were yelling at him to do SOMETHING before they withered and fell off from lack of use. He gathered all of his courage and nodded. 

“Excellent,” Fuji remarked. “I’ll pick a time and place, and let you know before hand. You won’t regret this, Momo-chan,” he got up and strolled away, leaving Momo sitting on the bench sweating. 'Won’t regret it?' He thought wildly. 'I already regret it, and I haven’t done anything yet!'


	2. Buggy Whip Shot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fuji's plan works like a charm!

Echizen Ryoma walked down the hallway of his new college, headed for the cafeteria. His arms were piled full of books, and he had to peer around the stack to see where he was going. Only a few weeks into his first term, and he already had a ton of homework. He sighed as he thought of all the studying he’d have to do tonight. Perhaps he could go over to Momo’s apartment and study with him as they’d done together all through high school. It might make the work less burdensome if he had someone fun like Momo to share it with.

He was meeting the rest of the former Seigaku Regulars for lunch, just as he had every day for the last month. In fact, he could just catch glimpses of them around his pile of books as he approached the cafeteria. There were Oishi and Eiji, leaning side by side next to each other against the wall, and whispering in each other’s ears. Eiji giggled at something Oishi said to him, his sapphire blue eyes scrunched up in merriment. Inui sat on a bench under the bulletin board, studiously writing in his data notebook. His face was absolutely unreadable behind his glasses. Kaidoh was sitting next to him, reading a book and occasionally hissing to himself over whatever he was reading.

Kawamura was standing at the end of the bench, reading one of the fliers on the bulletin board. Tezuka stood next to him, nose buried in a textbook, seemingly oblivious to the rest of the world. The only people Echizen didn’t see were Momo and Fuji. Most probably they were running late, as usual. 

He dumped his pile of books on the bench with a glad sigh for his aching muscles. Inui looked at him briefly over the tops of his glasses, and Kaidoh rolled his eyes up at him for a moment as his own form of greeting. “Ochibi!” squealed Eiji, reaching out a hand to pat Echizen on the shoulder fondly. Echizen didn’t know which annoyed him most - that pat or the fact that Eiji still called him by that stupid cutesy nickname even though he was eighteen. He glared coldly at the redhead in return, which only made Eiji laugh.

“Now, don’t tease him, Eiji,” Oishi said good naturedly, elbowing his boyfriend lightly in the ribs. “I think he doesn’t like it.”

Eiji giggled. “But that’s why I do it!” he chirped.

Echizen stepped stiffly out of range of Eiji’s reach, and turned his back on the annoying redhead. He hoped that Momo and Fuji showed up soon; he was really hungry. 

 

Kaidoh pretended to read his book, using it to shield his face from the rest of the group. That way, they wouldn’t see how red he was getting. One of Inui’s hands had settled on his upper thigh, and was slowly beginning to rub him through the material of his college uniform. Inui’s face remained blank and expressionless as he did this. Sadistic bastard! Kaidoh thought in exasperation. One day he’d get Inui back for the games he liked to play with him. His senpai/lover knew that Kaidoh dreaded the embarrassment of anyone noticing what Inui was doing, or how Kaidoh was responding to the hidden caress. He already had an erection, and he was beginning to breathe heavily as Inui’s hand ghosted higher and higher up his thigh. Dammit! Inui took a sadistic pleasure in torturing him whenever he could. It drove Kaidoh crazy, even as it excited him. Inui always knew how to make him come begging for more.

Suddenly, Kaidoh heard Kawamura gasp loudly. He looked up over the top of his book, risking someone seeing his red face, to see what had caused Kawamura to make that sound. Inui’s hand abruptly stilled on his thigh, as his senpai, too, looked up to see what Kawamura had seen. Kaidoh followed Kawamura’s dumbstruck stare, and what he saw made him gape in total shock.

There were two people standing near a pillar down the hall, making out in plain sight of the rest of the student body. But that wasn’t what made Kaidoh’s eyes widen. Nor was it the fact that it was two guys sucking each other’ faces in plain view of everybody. It was that he knew both of the people now trying to swallow each other’s tongues and it was a pairing that Kaidoh would never have foreseen in a million years.

Everyone in the group was now staring at the sight of Momoshiro making out with Fuji. Momo had his head bent, and his fingers were clasped around the back of Fuji’s head. Fuji was moaning softly into Momo’s mouth, and their tongues were tangling as they practically ate at each other. It was one of the hottest sights that Kaidoh had ever seen, or would have been if it had been anyone but that monkey Momo and the twisted Fuji. Kaidoh slid his eyes sideways to look at Tezuka’s profile, to see how he was reacting to the sight of his lover kissing Momo right out in the open for everybody to see.

Tezuka’s face was nearly unreadable as he stared down the hall at the busily engaged couple. Only a faint tightening around his mouth and narrowing of his intense hazel eyes betrayed the fact that he wasn’t totally calm and unaffected by what he was seeing. Kaidoh could almost feel sorry for Momo; an angry Tezuka was an awesome sight. He might have continued to watch the irate former Buchou’s face, except for just at that moment Inui’s hand started to move up his thigh again. Apparently he was getting off on seeing Momo and Fuji lock lips, and Kaidoh was going to pay the price for his arousal. The Viper nearly groaned as Inui’s long, slender fingers brushed lightly against the fabric at his groin. He was in deep shit now!

 

Echizen watched the display of oscular dexterity curiously. It had taken him a moment to realize that it was actually MOMO kissing Fuji! But that spiked mane of black hair was unmistakable. As he watched, Fuji threaded his fingers through that hair to hold Momo in place. Echizen felt a strange flash of some unknown emotion run through him, a curious sensation that he didn’t recognize. He had two rather peculiar urges – one, he wanted to go over there and separate the two men, and smash in Fuji’s smirking face with his tennis racket. And two, he wanted to take Fuji’s place. While he’d never thought about kissing Momo before, he wanted to now with a sudden ferocity that rather scared him. Jealousy and lust were two emotions that Echizen had never encountered before, and so he was feeling rather swamped by these unknown reactions.

Fuji and Momo finally broke apart as though just becoming aware of their audience. Momo put his hand up to the back of his head and laughed rather sheepishly. “Sorry about that,” he said weakly.

Fuji put his hand on Momo’s chest and smiled his most sex-kittenish smile. "Yes, Gomen,” he said insincerely. “But you know how it is, when you have to you have to…”

Momo turned rather red. He looked like he’d like to snatch Fuji’s hand off of him, but instead he only smiled rather nervously. “Yeah,” he said, squirming in embarrassment. “What he said.”

Poor Kawamura was now the color of a beet. Oishi took pity on him. He and Eiji walked over to their gentle friend, and Oishi tapped him on the shoulder. "Let’s go get some lunch, Taka,” he said, shooting the flustered Momo and smirking Fuji a rather cold look. Tezuka was one of his best friends, and Oishi was not at all happy with Fuji right at this moment. Kawamura agreed readily, and the three went into the cafeteria. Eiji cast a last incredulous glance at the pair over his shoulder as the doors closed behind them.

Inui abruptly stood up, abandoning the by now nearly frantic Kaidoh. “I think I’ll go get something to eat as well,” he said coolly, walking away and leaving a red-faced Kaidoh bent over himself on the bench. 

:I’ll get you for this, Inui-senpai,: his lover thought furiously. :Someway, somehow, I’ll get you for this:. Fortunately for him, no one noticed his struggles. It was only Tezuka, a frozen Echizen, and Fuji and Momo left out on the hall.

“Lunch sounds great,” blurted out Momo, his eyes flicking desperately from a gleeful Fuji to Tezuka’s stony face. “I’m going to grab something to eat, too,” and he made his cowardly retreat as fast as he could, only shooting a single glance at Echizen to see if that whole horrifying scene had been for nothing. He saw a strange look on Echizen’s face, one he’d never seen before, and it gave him hope as he practically ran into the cafeteria.

Echizen finally got himself together enough to follow Momo into the cafeteria. A slightly bent over Kaidoh was nearly on his heels, because the Viper did NOT want to be out in the hall in the next few minutes. The tension between the two men who stood facing each other in silence was thick enough that you could have cut through it with a hacksaw. He didn’t want to be caught between an enraged Tezuka and a triumphant Fuji, not for all of the yen in Japan. 

When the hall was empty except for Tezuka and Fuji, the dark-haired former captain spoke for the first time. “What was that supposed to be about, Fuji?” he asked coolly.

Fuji tilted his head and put on a look of pseudo-innocence. “I don’t know what you mean,Tezuka,” he replied mockingly.

Tezuka’s lips thinned. He strode towards Fuji, and even the insouciant prodigy felt a fleeting rush of fear. But he didn’t move as Tezuka grasped his arm in a hard hand and began to drag him down the hall. “Where are you taking me, Tezuka?” Fuji asked interestedly, excited enough that two brilliant blue slits appeared as he opened his eyes a bit.

“Somewhere more private where we can talk about this,” Tezuka replied grimly. Fuji gasped eagerly, his body already stirred up by Momo’s kisses. The boy was a surprisingly good kisser. If he hadn’t been so wrapped up in Echizen, and Fuji wasn’t already taken – but he was. And the person he belonged to was even now pulling him along by the arm, most likely taking him somewhere where he could ‘punish’ him. Fuji was looking forward to it immensely.

Tezuka dragged his lover into the men’s bathroom. He pulled him over to a stall and pushed him inside. Then he followed after, closing and locking the door behind him. He turned and confronted a gleeful, thoroughly aroused Fuji. “So what was the show for?” he asked calmly, folding his arms over his chest and staring at Fuji through the lenses of his glasses.

“Show?” Fuji said, tilting his head and pretending to be puzzled. “I don’t know what you mean, Tezuka.”

Tezuka’s eyes narrowed. “So you’re trying to tell me that you’re with Momo now?” he said with delicate sarcasm in his voice.

Fuji put up a hand to fluff his hair. “And why not? Momo-chan is good-looking, sexy, and a great kisser. Why shouldn’t I be with him?”

Tezuka blew air through his nose in exasperation. “So I’m supposed to believe a miracle happened and that Momo isn’t completely hung up on Echizen anymore,” he said dryly.

Fuji cursed silently at his lover’s perceptiveness. But all he said was: “It’s possible.”

“Yeah, and that herd of pigs I saw fly by this afternoon was, too.” Tezuka replied coolly. He took a few steps forward, until he was practically pressed up against Fuji. The prodigy had nowhere to go without ending up sitting on the toilet. “I know what this is really about,” Tezuka said in a soft, deadly voice that made lust run through Fuji like a thunderbolt. Gods he loved it when Tezuka was like this! He was so forceful, so strong. He just knew that he was going to get fucked hard, and very soon. His breath flew out in a rush as Tezuka lowered his head until their mouths were nearly brushing.

“You’re pissed off because I haven’t fucked you lately,” Tezuka said, making Fuji quiver at his use of such coarse language. 

He met those darkening hazel eyes head on, opening his own startling blue eyes wide. “Yes,” he hissed.

“So you tried to make me jealous,” Tezuka continued relentlessly, pressing his hard body up against Fuji’s. 

The slender brown-haired boy moaned at the feel, and began to rub himself against Tezuka. “Yes,” he repeated, gasping at the feel of his lover’s strong body against his own. Damn, but he’d missed this! 

“It worked,” Tezuka said grimly, then swooped his head down and kissed Fuji savagely. His hands came up to tighten in Fuji’s hair, and he continued to grind himself against Fuji’s slender body even as he plundered his mouth. Fuji decided right then and there that even if Momo had been available, he wasn’t interested. No one had the same affect on him that Tezuka did. Being kissed by him was like being submerged in liquid fire. Fuji just couldn’t get enough.

Tezuka released his mouth and began to bite and kiss his way down Fuji’s neck until he reached the high-standing collar of his uniform. Fuji moaned, not caring who might come into the bathroom and hear him. He ran his hands through Tezuka’s hair, disarranging it even more, then began to pull at the fastenings on the front of his tunic. His nimble fingers soon had them all undone, and he pushed it open so that he could run his hands down Tezuka’s toned, muscular chest.

He relished the groan Tezuka released as he bent forward and began to suck lightly on his nipples. Tezuka began to jerk on the fastenings of Fuji’s tunic in return, as the prodigy ran his slender hands down to the waistband of Tezuka’s pants and unsnapped them. He soon freed Tezuka’s erection, pulling it out so that he could run his small hand up and down its length. Tezuka groaned again, even as he half pushed Fuji’s tunic off of his shoulders. He twisted Fuji’s nipples lightly, knowing that his warped little lover liked a little pain in with his pleasure. Fuji gasped at the sensation, and his hand began to move faster.

Tezuka would have undone Fuji’s pants in return, but the prodigy forestalled him by kneeling in the narrow space and taking Tezuka’s cock in his mouth. The former Captain gasped as Fuji’s hot little mouth began to suck at him skillfully. He put his hands on Fuji’s shoulders as he swirled his tongue around the head of his lover’s cock, then began to lick his way down the length of it as he grasped the root of it in his slender hand.

Tezuka was nearly mindless at this point. Dimly he wondered what had possessed him to start taking Fuji for granted. True, he was weighed down with a ton of coursework, and there was tennis practice on top of that. But he still didn’t see how he could have forgotten just how sexy Fuji was, and how hot. His kinky little lover was a sex fiend, a fact that he’d really enjoyed up until this last school year had started. Gods, he was an idiot. But no more. He’d find time to fuck Fuji’s brains out regularly, even if it killed him. He’d admit that he’d felt incredibly jealous when he saw Fuji kissing Momo. No one else was allowed to touch his twisted little sex freak.

He pushed Fuji’s head away from his cock. He was going to come in his mouth if he didn’t, and he wanted to come in Fuji’s tight little ass. “Get up” he told his lover. Fuji complied eagerly, and Tezuka kissed him again even as he finally unfastened Fuji’s pants and pushed them down around his ankles.

“Turn around,” Tezuka ordered him next. Fuji obeyed, wide-eyed and panting with excitement. Tezuka pushed his shoulders down until he was bent over with his hands resting on the toilet lid. 

Tezuka put two fingers in Fuji’s mouth, and he sucked them eagerly. When they were coated with spit, he withdrew them and shoved one of his agile digits into Fuji’s tight little asshole. The prodigy mewled and lifted his ass in a begging motion as Tezuka began to move his finger in and out of him rather harshly. “Who do you belong to?” 

He growled, and Fuji gasped “You!”, then nearly shrieked as Tezuka prodded his prostate sharply with his fingertip.

“That’s right. And I suggest you don’t forget it again,” Tezuka replied threateningly. Fuji trembled, so aroused he could barely breathe. He just adored it when Tezuka was so forceful with him. He felt another finger slide into him, and he threw his head back and cried out.

Tezuka sawed his fingers inside of Fuji, drawing loud gasps and cries from his lips. “What do you want, Fuji?” He asked at last when he could feel that his fingers had opened his lover up. 

“I want you to fuck me!” Fuji nearly screamed, not caring who might hear. 

Tezuka grabbed Fuji’s white buttocks and pulled them apart fiercely. He shoved his cock into him in one push, causing Fuji to groan in a sweet combination of pleasure and pain. Not giving him a chance to adjust, Tezuka began to fuck him with long, forceful strokes. Fuji’s gasps were nearly breathless, his face twisted as Tezuka pounded him relentlessly from behind. He could feel Tezuka’s hard fingers digging into his hips with enough force to leave bruises. His lover was punishing him for kissing another man, just as Fuji had known he would. And Gods, did he love it! 

“Harder, faster!" Fuji yelled, beginning to push his ass back against Tezuka’s hips. His lover complied, driving into him forcefully. The sound of their flesh slapping together was loud in the quiet bathroom. Fuji’s cries were even louder, spurring Tezuka on to try to pound him through the toilet. On one particularly forceful thrust, Tezuka struck Fuji’s prostate. Fuji screamed in agonized pleasure, coming without even touching himself. Tezuka drove himself into him a few more times, before he groaned as he met his own end. 

Tezuka stood with his head bent, feeling his cock twitch inside of Fuji. He looked down at the wilted form of his lover, seeing the light sheen of sweat across his shoulders and back. He loved the sight of Fuji spread out in front of him like this, totally annihilated by the force of his fucking. It made him feel dominant and masculine to know that he could reduce Fuji to this every time.

After short time of savoring the feel of Fuji’s twitching asshole, Tezuka reluctantly pulled out of him. Fuji moaned in protest, but Tezuka knew that it was a miracle that no one had come into the bathroom already and heard the two of them going at it in the stall. He grabbed some toilet paper and cleaned himself up, then pulled Fuji to his feet and roughly did the same for him. His lover moaned at the feel of it, and stood on trembling legs as Tezuka pulled his pants back up and fastened him back into his tunic. Then Tezuka straightened his own clothes. When he was neat and presentable once more, he turned to the still rather glassy-eyed Fuji.

“I’m only going to say this once, Fuji,” he said quietly. Fuji came alert at these words, and looked at him out of ice-blue slits. “I apologize for neglecting you. My course work is important, and so is practice. But I forgot that you’re just as important, maybe more. I won’t forget again.”

Fuji beamed. That’s all he’d really wanted to hear. To know that he was important to his lover made him happy. Tezuka smiled a little at the look on his face. “Let’s go,” he said, taking Fuji’s arm. “I want to get something to eat before I have to go to my next class. For some reason,” he shot an amused sideways look at Fuji, “I’m absolutely starving.” The two men left the bathroom, and a few minutes later a traumatized freshman emerged from one of the stalls and scurried away in a red-faced blur.


	3. Side Split Step

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fuji gives Echizen something to think about...in his own evil way, of course...

Everyone saw Tezuka and Fuji enter the cafeteria and walk towards the counter together. It was obvious that their former buchou and the prodigy had ‘made up’, since Tezuka’s hair was mussed and Fuji’s face was still flushed. Kaidoh, sitting next to Inui at one of the tables, hissed when he spotted them. “I guess we don’t have to ask what they were just doing,” he growled.

“There is a one-hundred-per-cent probability that they were just engaged in coitus,” agreed Inui dryly. 

“Then what was that whole thing out there with Momo?” demanded Kaidoh in disgust.

Inui calmly took a bite of his sandwich. “There is a 96.5 per cent probability that Fuji was trying to make Tezuka jealous,” he said.

Kaidoh’s brows drew together. “If that’s true, how did he get Momo to swallow his tongue?” 

A ghost of a smile flitted across Inui’s normally stony face. “There is a 98 per cent probability that Momo was trying to make someone jealous also.”

“Who?!" asked Kaidoh incredulously.

Inui nodded his head in the direction of the boy with the dark green hair sitting at a table with Oishi, Eiji and Kawamura. “Echizen?!” Kaidoh said. “I don’t believe it!”

Inui shook his head. “You should be more observant, Kaidoh,” he chided his lover. “It’s a good trait for a tennis player to have.” Kaidoh colored at this rebuke, and glared at him.

“Just because I have trouble believing that Momo wants to do Echizen doesn’t make me unobservant,” he spat.

Inui sighed and took another bite of his sandwich. Kaidoh hissed angrily when he didn’t answer, and savagely ate a French fry. But he almost spit it back out when he felt Inui’s fingers trailing up his thigh once again. He started to say something, to hiss at his lover to just cut it out and stop teasing him, when he felt Inui unsnap the button at the top of his pants. Dry-mouthed, he hunched over a little so that the tablecloth and his own body would conceal what was happening in his lap. Inui had done with playing. He was serious this time. Kaidoh almost groaned as the zipper was pulled down slowly but surely, and then Inui’s clever fingers delved into his boxers to fish out his already erect cock.

The Viper bent his head and rested it in his hands. He looked like he was tired or not feeling well, or perhaps thinking hard. This position concealed his slowly reddening face from the rest of the cafeteria, as Inui ran his fingertips down the length of Kaidoh’s cock in a butterfly caress that made him bite his lip to keep in his moan. His fingertips rubbed lightly at the tip, and his poor lover almost came off the chair at the sensation. A soft, hissing gasp slid from Kaidoh’s lips, and Inui smiled a very small but quite evil smile.

Deciding perhaps to relieve the Viper’s suffering a little, Inui tightened his grip and began to stroke the erection he held in his hand with a firm, sure movement that caused Kaidoh to groan in the back of his throat. “Ahh, senpai,” he growled softly. Inui’s lips quirked a bit, but he never stopped his metronomic hand movement. He’d punish Kaidoh later for calling him ‘senpai’, a habit he’d been trying to break him of ever since Kaidoh had enrolled in college as a freshman in Inui’s second year. He didn’t want his lover to still be calling him that once Kaidoh graduated the year after he did. As a warning of the punishment to come, he tweaked the tip of Kaidoh’s red, quivering erection sharply. The Viper mewled softly and jumped in his seat, his mouth opening as he struggled for air.

Inui resumed his steady stroking. He could tell that Kaidoh wouldn’t last much longer, and it pleased him to make his lover come in his hand right here in front of half the student body. The soft, hissing gasps that Kaidoh emitted as he was worked up to orgasm were beautiful sounds. It reminded Inui of all the times he’d drawn that sound from Kaidoh’s throat while they were having sex. He was half-hard himself, just hearing those sounds. He tightened his hand a bit, creating a friction that was just this side of pain, and gave several firm strokes that finished Kaidoh off. The Viper moaned as he came, his cock jerking in Inui's grasp. He bent his head nearly to the table top to hide his reddened, sweating face as Inui withdrew his hand and fastidiously cleaned it off with a napkin.

Oh, this was just too much! Kaidoh had had it with Inui doing this to him in public with no consequences. As soon as he had his breath back and he’d recovered a bit from his orgasm, he slid his eyes sideways to look at Inui's profile. His lover looked as cool and collected as always, and the sight annoyed Kaidoh even more. It was payback time. Casually he turned his head and glanced at the rest of the cafeteria. No one had noticed what he and Inui were doing, and no one appeared to be looking at them especially now. He oh-so-casually knocked his spoon to the floor, and then bent to retrieve it. Swift and slick as the serpent he was nicknamed for, he glided under the tablecloth and disappeared.

One of Inui’s eyebrows rose a bit as his lover slid under the tablecloth and out of sight. Curiously he waited to see what Kaidoh would do, and he got his answer soon enough when a pair of strong hands settled on his thighs. He pushed back a little to give his lover room to settle in between his legs, and also so that he could look down into his lap and see what was happening there. 

What was happening was that that same pair of hands slid up his thighs and went to work on the button and zipper of his pants. Inui felt both excited and amazed – he would never have believed that Kaidoh had it in him to do something like this. He was glad to be proven wrong, as the Viper released his erection and took it in hand. Kaidoh rolled his eyes up to look at his lover’s face as he bent his head and deliberately put out the tip of his tongue to lightly flick at the head of Inui’s cock.

Inui’s breath ghosted out of him in a very soft sound of arousal. Pleased, Kaidoh repeated the same action again, then swirled his tongue over the head before he took more of it into his mouth and began to suck. He watched his senpai all the time through his lashes, although he was the only one who could see the reactions he was evoking in him. Anyone else, looking at Inui at this moment, would have seen only his usual stony face. They certainly wouldn’t be able to read his eyes behind his thick square opaque lenses. But Kaidoh had been with Inui for several years now, and he saw the faint tightening of Inui’s lips and the way his head tilted back just the tiniest bit. This meant that his lover was very excited. The Viper smiled to himself mentally as he deep-throated Inui down to the curling dark pubic hair, and then held him in his mouth while he breathed through his nose. Only he heard the quiet gasp from the man sitting in front of him. 

Kaidoh started a back and forth movement with his head, at the same time stroking the erection lightly with his tongue. He knew what Inui liked, and he set out to drive his senpai/lover crazy. Only he would know that he was doing so; Inui’s porcelain mask wouldn’t crack. But that thought just excited him even more, and made him go at it harder. It was like a secret they shared between them. 

Inui took another bite of his sandwich, and chewed it slowly and deliberately. Behind his glasses, he flicked a look down at the top of the black head resting in his lap. Kaidoh’s head was moving faster, and his hot mouth engulfed Inui over and over again. The Viper was such a talented cocksucker; and Inui didn’t think that he’d ever enjoyed that talent more. He could feel and see people walking by around them, and out of the corner of his eye he saw their friends sitting at their tables a few feet away, unaware of what was happening. His smooth façade cracked enough at this awareness that he actually bit his lip a bit to keep in the loud moan that tried to escape. He was heavily aroused by the voyeuristic aspect of this whole scenario.

One of his hands fell casually into his lap, and he stroked the top of Kaidoh’s head in a gesture that was almost fond. The Viper smiled as he released the cock from his mouth, and then took it in once again. He hollowed his cheeks as he began to suck strongly, intending to finish Inui off. Vigorously he went at it, and Inui gasped nearly soundlessly as his fingers tightened in Kaidoh’s coal-black hair and he came with a surge into the welcoming mouth of his lover. Kaidoh continued to suck until he’d emptied Inui, and the data specialist tapped him on the head to tell him to stop. He pulled away, looked up at his lover, and deliberately licked his lips. Inui placed his fingertips on Kaidoh’s cheek as a kind of gesture of thanks, and the Viper’s eyes gleamed. He gently trucked Inui back in and fastened his pants back up, and then ghosted away silently. A moment later he got back into his seat holding the dropped spoon casually, as though he’d only been gone a moment to retrieve to. No one in the bustling crowd of students so much as looked at him, and the Viper hissed in a pleased way to himself.

Inui was still eating his sandwich. Kaidoh attacked his own lunch, starving now. Both men sat side-by-side, not touching or looking at each other, but both very aware of the other just the same. In Inui’s opinion, this had been a definitely interesting and profitable lunch break. He’d have to make sure it happened again soon. He glanced at Kaidoh’s still slightly flushed face out of the corner of his eye, and a rather cruel smile slid across his mouth and was gone. He’d train his lover to like doing things in public that were best left private, or his name wasn’t Inui.

 

Echizen sat at the table with Oishi, Eiji, and Kawamura, picking at his food. For some reason, his appetite was gone. He’d been starving when he first arrived at the cafeteria, but for some reason seeing Momo kiss Fuji had killed his appetite completely. As he poked at his lunch, he let his eyes slide sideways to the table where Momo was sitting with some other sophomores. He could only see the back of that spiky black head from where he was sitting, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself from staring at it.

The image of Momo and Fuji kissing kept running through his head. He was puzzled about his reaction to the sight, and more than a little disturbed. He had never thought of Momo in this way before. Momo was just his friend; someone he laughed with, who could tease him without being cruel, who was kindness personified. Momo’s upbeat cheerfulness was a good compliment to his own quiet, serious personality. They’d made a surprisingly good doubles pair, both of them driven to win and willing to use their strengths to accomplish that goal. Momo was just always there, a happy-go-lucky creature who had always made Echizen’s life a little more interesting and fun. 

Perhaps he’d always taken Momo for granted. It never occurred to him that Momo had interests and wants outside of tennis, because he’d never had any. But now he couldn’t get the picture of Momo thrusting his tongue into Fuji’s mouth out of his head. A strange warmth coiled in his stomach at the memory, and he shifted restlessly in his chair. What was the matter with him? What was the peculiar, alien feeling that kept running through him, making him restless and leaving him wanting something he couldn’t name?

“Well, would you look at that,” Oishi said suddenly. Echizen pulled his eyes away from Momo and turned to look at what Oishi was staring at. Tezuka and Fuji had entered the cafeteria, and Tezuka’s hand rested lightly on Fuji’s elbow. Echizen frowned, wondering why Fuji’s face was so red. Had they been practicing or something? 

Eiji gasped. “I can’t believe it!” he exclaimed in disgust. “Poor Momo-chan! Fuji’s such a tease,” he finished angrily, glaring at the back of the prodigy’s head.

Oishi sighed. “It was inevitable, I suppose. Fuji was just using Momo-chan. It’s still not right, though,” he added in disgust. "Leading Momo-chan on just to play games with Tezuka.”

Eiji shook his red head sharply. “Well, I for one am not going to let him do this to Momo-chan. I think we should find someone else for him – someone who’s not a psychotic little bitch.”

“What, you mean set him up with someone we know?” Oishi replied interestedly. “We could do that. Who, though…”

“I’ve got it!” exclaimed Eiji, clapping his hands happily. "That cute little junior Hirose. He broke up with his boyfriend about six months ago. He must be ready for another relationship by now. I’m sure they’d get along great. What do you think, Oishi?”

Oishi looked pleased. "You may have something there, love,” he replied. “Hirose-kun might be just what Momo-chan needs to get over that wretched Fuji. We’ll have to set them up on a date.”

Echizen listened silently to this conversation, and was hard-pressed not to jump up from his chair and yell at the two happily conspiring men to mind their own business. Momo didn’t need them to matchmake for him! Echizen felt another wave of unfamiliar jealousy rush through him at the thought of this Hirose person going on a date with Momo. His hand tightened on his fork, and he growled softly in the back of his throat. Kawamura heard the sound and looked at him in surprise. “Are you all right, Echizen?” he asked gently.

Echizen nodded, once. "I’m fine, Kawamura-senpai,” he answered in rather strangled tones. 

Kawamura shot him a puzzled, faintly worried look, but Echizen didn’t respond to it. He jumped up and carried his still almost full plate over to the bus tubs. He dumped it inside, and took off out of the cafeteria without saying anything to anybody. Only when he was outside did he realize that he’d left his pile of textbooks on the bench when he went in to get lunch. Fortunately they were still there, and he snagged them as he walked down the hallway headed toward the doors that led outside to the quad.

He found an empty bench outside and sat down on it, placing the books next to him. He wanted to think. Normally he’d have gone to the courts and practiced while he was thinking, because that always helped him to clear his head. But he had a class in twenty minutes, so there wasn’t time to get over to the courts, retrieve his racket, and go through a whole practice session. He’d just have to do his thinking out here.

He sighed as he leaned forward and rested his chin in his hand. This had been such a weird day. He felt strange and all out of sorts. He wasn’t used to feeling too many emotions, but today he’d practically run the gamut. He’d even experienced new emotions that he didn’t recognize, along with the unsettling spurts of anger he’d felt at Fuji, Oishi, and Eiji. He didn’t like this. Not at all. 

“Hey, Echizen!” a familiar voice called. “What are you doing sitting out here all by yourself?”

Echizen grimaced as he looked up into the face of the last person that he wanted to see today. Fuji beamed down at him cheerfully, and Tezuka nodded quietly to him. “I was thinking,” Echizen replied to Fuji’s query grimly.

“Well, it couldn’t have been about anything good by the look on your face,” Fuji said. He tipped his head to the side. “Or was it? Thinking about a certain person, Echizen?”

Echizen’s brows drew together as his bronze-gold eyes sparked with anger. Fuji’s eyes opened a bit with interest at Echizen’s response to his jibe. He’d always liked playing with fire. “So, am I right?” he taunted softly, as Echizen’s eyes narrowed warningly.

“No. And it’s none of your business anyway,” Echizen replied coldly. He disliked Fuji very much right now. The urge to smash his face in had returned full force. 

Fuji’s eyes flared with an ice-blue light. Oh, this was fun! He heard Tezuka sigh behind him, but that just made him grin. His lover knew what he was like by now. “I suppose you’re right,” he conceded mock repentantly. “And I think I should apologize to you, Echizen.” 

Tezuka’s eyebrows flew up as Echizen stared up at Fuji in startlement. Never in a million years would he have imagined that those words would come out of Fuji’s mouth. "For what?” he asked cautiously.

Fuji waved a hand negligently. “For putting on that little show with Momo back there. I’ll admit that I was doing it to make Tezuka jealous,” he shot a gleaming look over his shoulder at his lover, who only shook his head in faint exasperation at the games Fuji liked to play, “so I used Momo-chan for my own purposes. It was bad of me, I’ll admit. But then, Momo-chan was just using me, as well. He was trying to make someone jealous, too.”

Echizen felt his stomach roll in a combination of nervousness and excitement at these words. “Who?” he asked urgently, which made Fuji smile even wider.

“Oh, I can’t tell you that. Momo wants to keep it a secret,” he lied happily. “Although I CAN tell you that it’s one of the former Regulars. Momo-chan likes him, and so he went along with my silly little plan hoping that this person would take notice of him. I wonder if it worked?” he asked slyly, staring at Echizen’s face.

Echizen didn’t know what to think. He was confused by Fuji’s words. One of the former Regulars? Who? There weren’t that many of them – he was sure that he could find out which one Momo was interested in. But his heart fell at the thought, and he fought back the sudden inexplicable urge to sniffle unhappily. He bowed his head so that the two men couldn’t see his face. Fuji rolled his eyes over Echizen’s cluelessness. He might have said more, but Tezuka took his elbow. “Come on,” he said softly into Fuji’s ear. “You’ve had your fun for the day.”

Fuji grinned unrepentantly at him as Tezuka led him away. “I’ll see you at practice later, Echizen-kun,” the formed buchou said quietly to the green-haired boy. Echizen nodded but didn’t look up as Tezuka towed a smiling Fuji away.


	4. Bullet Serve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Echizen plays detective, and comes to a surprising(for him) realization...

Momo picked at his lunch morosely. He ignored the chattering of the three other guys sitting at his table as he pushed his peas around on his plate with his fork. He couldn’t believe that he’d actually made out with Fuji. While it hadn’t been as bad as he’d thought it might be, and Fuji was a damn good kisser, he felt dirty. Worse, doing it while Echizen watched made him feel sick. He’d felt the weight of that bronze-gold stare the entire time that he’d had his tongue in Fuji’s mouth. 

Gods, I am a total idiot for letting Fuji talk me into that, Momo thought. What was I thinking! Maybe I should have just talked to Echizen, explained to him how I feel about him. Instead I sucked faces with Fuji right in front of him. What’ll he think of me now? He was afraid to turn around and look at the table where Echizen sat eating lunch with the Golden Pair and Kawamura. He didn’t want to see the look on Ryo’s face. What if it was disgust? Or anger? Or even worse, hurt? He hunched his shoulders at that thought, and sighed tiredly. I am never, EVER going to listen to Fuji again, he thought.

As if he’d conjured him with this thought, he glanced a bit to his right and saw Fuji and Tezuka enter the cafeteria. One look at them told him that the plan had at least worked for Fuji. That was something anyway, he supposed. He jumped suddenly as one of his table mates elbowed him. “Hey, Momo-chan!” he chirped.

Somehow Momo refrained from glaring at him. It wasn’t his classmate’s fault that he was in a bad mood. “What?” he asked tersely.

“Are you coming to the student mixer on Friday?” the boy replied, oblivious to Momo’s uncharacteristic surliness.

“I don’t know,” Momo said with a shrug. These mixers were mostly for students to mingle and try to find dates. Momo didn’t want to try to find a date. At least not at one of these student gatherings. The only date he wanted was a certain green-haired teammate. And he showed no signs of being interested in return. Momo rested his head in his hand and sighed miserably.

“Hey, man, what’s the matter?” the other student asked, eyeing him. It was very seldom indeed that Momo was seen with anything besides a cheerful look on his face. The other boys were gazing at him with concern, as well. Somehow he pulled himself together enough to work up a rather insincere smile for them. 

“It’s nothing. I’m just worried about the tournament that’s coming up in a few weeks,” he lied.

“You shouldn’t be worried,” the boy replied, clapping Momo on the back encouragingly. “I’ve seen the way you play. You’ll beat the pants off of your opponents!”

The other two boys murmured agreement, and Momo managed to conjure up a genuine (if small) smile for them at their encouraging words. “Thanks, guys,” he said. 

Not wanting to continue conversing with his classmates, Momo glanced at his watch. "I gotta go,” he said to the others. “I’ve got some studying to do in the library.”

“Okay, Momo-chan. But don’t forget to come to the mixer!”

Momo nodded, although he had no intention of doing so. He turned to leave, and noticed that the chair that Echizen had been sitting in was empty. He wondered where his friend had gone. Perhaps he should try to find him, to talk to him? But no. What was he supposed to say? Sorry I made out with Fuji right in front of you, Echizen? And by the way, would you go out with me? That was just not going to wash. Dragging his feet a little, a depressed Momo slouched out of the cafeteria. He supposed that he’d actually go to the library, since he had nothing better to do.

 

Echizen set out to discover which of the former Regulars that Momo liked, going about it in his usual oddly efficient way. He could tick Tezuka and Fuji off of his list right away, since they were together. He wondered if it might be one half of the Golden Pair, and he decided to see how Momo reacted to his teammates during practice after school. He hoped it wasn’t that annoying Eiji; surely Momo had better taste than that?

He brooded over this question all through English class. This was his easiest subject, anyway, since he’d spent several years in the U.S. and he spoke English fairly fluently. So he didn’t bother to pay attention to the lecture or to take notes, and he busied himself with his thoughts on the matter of who Momo had been trying to make jealous by making out with Fuji, but he had come to no definite conclusions by the time class was over.

His next class was a lot harder, so he had to pay attention. But he found himself easily distracted, and once even caught himself up after having stared blankly out of the window for at least five minutes straight. His loss of concentration annoyed and puzzled him. He could usually focus on one thing to the exclusion of everything else, and it was one of the reasons he was such a formidable tennis player. But now his brain wasn’t co-operating, and the image of Momo kissing Fuji kept intruding into his mind every few minutes like clockwork. He wanted to growl in frustration. The chemistry formulas written on the board might as well have been an alien language, and he stared at them blankly for several minutes during one point in the lecture. He wasn’t even sure that his notes were correct.

He left the class room with a sigh of relief. That was his last class for today, and he wouldn’t have to try to pay attention or concentrate anymore. Tennis practice was a lot easier, since he could do that automatically. He put his books into his backpack and headed for the courts, wanting to get in some practice (and clear his mind) before the others arrived. He stowed the backpack in the locker room, changed into a jersey and some shorts, and retrieved his racket from his bag. With its comforting weight in his hand, he went out to hit the ball against the concrete wall of the building over and over again with delicate precision.

He hit the ball automatically, his mind far away from what his hands were doing. How was he to find out which one of the former Regulars Momo liked? Would his purple-eyed friend give away a hint by his behavior towards them, or would he simply have to eliminate them one by one logically? He supposed that he could also scratch Kaidoh off of his list, since the Viper and Momo loathed each other. They’d been staring daggers at each other from the beginning, and they still hated each other intensely. But could outward hate cover some inward emotion? Maybe Momo was attracted to Kaidoh, but was afraid to show it? Echizen sighed. He just didn’t know.

The others finally arrived for practice, and Eiji yelled at him: "Oi! Ochibi! Come on over here!” Echizen mustered up a pale imitation of his normal annoyed glare for the redhead, and walked over to join the rest of the team.

Momo, he noticed right away, wouldn’t meet his eye. This made Echizen frown in puzzlement. What was wrong with him? He would have asked him outright, but Momo tapped Kawamura on the shoulder and went off with him to practice. Echizen’s brows drew together. Could Kawamura be the one? The big, sweet young man was a great guy, that was certain. But right at that moment Echizen wanted nothing more than to kick him hard on the shins. He glowered at Kawamura’s broad back as he and Momo walked away to one of the other courts.

A hand slapped him on the back. “”Hoi, Echizen. Come and practice with me,” Fuji said, beaming at him. Echizen glared daggers at him, but the prodigy didn’t seem to notice. Or he pretended not to, anyway. They squared off against each other, and Echizen took a certain spiteful joy in running Fuji around the court hard. He played as though they were going against each other in a real match, and Fuji was soon sweating nicely. 

“Enough,” Fuji eventually panted, raising a hand to forestall Echizen’s serve. He wiped at his brow with one slender hand, and grinned at Echizen. “Get it out of your system?” he asked archly. Echizen ignored this question, and walked off the court without a backward glance. Fuji snickered behind him, and strolled away to watch Tezuka and Oishi squaring off against each other. Kaidoh and Eiji were also practicing together as singles, much to the disgruntlement of both.

Echizen went over to retrieve a bottle of water from one of the benches. Inui was already occupying it, writing in his data book in his usual precise, cool manner. He’d wait to practice against Kaidoh once he was finished with Eiji, since the Viper’s training routine gave him enough stamina that he could easily do two practices in a row. He nodded to Echizen when the boy picked up his water bottle, but didn’t stop his meticulous data gathering.

Echizen took a drink from the bottle, all the while watching Momo play against Kawamura. He didn’t think that Momo was looking at Kawamura in any way that was different from normal, but it was hard to tell. He sighed, plopping down on the bench and staring down at his shoes moodily.

“Care to tell me about it?” Inui asked suddenly. He still didn’t look up from his notebook, but Echizen was used to the fact that Inui had eyes in the back of his head. And the sides. And the top, apparently, for that matter.

Echizen considered what he should say. He was wary about telling Inui the whole truth, because he had a wicked sense of humor AND he recorded everything in that damn notebook of his. Still - he had to talk to somebody. And Inui was very smart. He sighed. “What if you wanted to find out if somebody you liked liked someone else?” he began uncertainly. “How would you go about doing that, Inui-senpai?”

Inui raised his brows slightly. This was a topic of conversation he would never have expected to come up from Echizen. “Hmmm…data should be collected about the situation, of course,” he said coolly.

Echizen nodded. He’d known that Inui was going to say that. “Well, I can’t really collect a ton of data in this case without tipping off the person I’m trying to find out about,” he said doubtfully.

“A problem,” Inui conceded. “Perhaps one I can solve,” he continued thoughtfully.

Echizen looked up at him. “What do you mean?” 

“I’ve collected data on everyone here. I presume that this person is one of the people here?” he said, waving at the former Regulars with one hand as a small smile ghosted across his face.

Echizen nodded slowly. Inui refrained from shaking his head, but just barely. He considered just telling Echizen that Momo liked him, and not one of the other Regulars, but he thought that the boy should figure that out for himself. It would help his logic skills and his thinking. Besides, it was rather fun to watch cool, calm Echizen moon over Momo. Kind of cute, really. So all he said was: “Well, I very much doubt that it would be either Tezuka or Fuji, as they are so obviously a couple.”

Echizen nodded. “I already eliminated them,” he said, “Because Fuji told me that he was just kissing Momo to make Tezuka jealous. And he said Momo was kissing HIM to make someone else jealous. I was just wondering who, is all.”

Inui sighed a bit, wondering if there was anyone in the world besides himself who was even the least bit observant. But he merely continued: “Oishi and Eiji are out of the running, as well, as they’re practically joined at the hip. Momo knows that. He wouldn’t try to break up the Pair.”

“Oh,” Echizen said. That made sense – he’d seen the Golden Pair together often enough, touching each other or laughing together, or looking into each other’s eyes. They were just like a pair of puppies. And it was true that Momo wouldn’t try to break up an established(and obviously happy) couple, even if he liked one of them. That thought pleased him, because he really couldn’t have stood it if it had turned out that Momo liked Eiji.

Echizen thought about who was left, then shot Inui an uncertain glance. “Uhh…” he began, not sure how to bring up the topic.

Inui quirked one side of his mouth up. “It’s not me” he said with certainty. “Momo-chan’s just a bit afraid of me, I think. I doubt that he’s lusting after me.”

“Then…Kaidoh?” Echizen asked uncertainly. "But…they hate each other.”

Inui nodded. “Passionately. Although perhaps that’s the basis for other kinds of sparks, as well…” he stopped when he saw the look on Echizen’s face, and was hard-pressed not to laugh out loud. Really, a jealous Echizen was an amazing sight. Inui was enjoying himself immensely, but he decided to put the boy out of (some) of his misery. 

“It’s not Kaidoh,” he said firmly.

“How do you know that?” Echizen said, turning his head to try to read Inui’s face. A useless occupation, even at the best of times. 

Inui turned his head to glance at Echizen in return. The sunlight flashed off of his square lenses, making him look positively demonic. “Because Kaidoh is already taken, as well," he said. “And Momo knows that.”

"Taken?”Echizen blurted, surprised. “By whom?”

Inui’s mouth quirked up once again. “By me,” he said flatly, but with amusement coursing through his voice.

Echizen’s mouth dropped open. His bronze-gold eyes widened as he stared at Inui. “You mean… you and Kaidoh…” he said blankly.

Inui nodded “Kaidoh belongs to me,” he said positively. “And I don’t share. So you can write him off your list as well.”

Echizen shook his head to try to clear it. This was such a weird day! Never in a million years would he have imagined that he’d find out so much about his teammates (stuff he wasn’t sure that he wanted to know, but still…). But who did that leave?

Kawamura. His head whipped around as he glared back at the court where Kawamura and Momo were still practicing. It had to be Kawamura. Unless… “Is Kawamura with anyone?” he asked hopefully.

Inui hesitated. “I don’t have any data on that.” He said. “But…I don’t think so.”

“Oh,” Echizen felt as though he’d been kicked in the gut by a mule. “Thanks, anyway, Inui-senpai” he said, getting up from the bench and trailing off into the locker rooms with slumped shoulders. Inui watched him go, shaking his head. “Let he who has eyes, let him see…” he murmured in disgust, before he went back to his notebook.

 

Echizen changed into street clothes in the locker room, then snagged his backpack and made his way out of the building. He considered just going home to the tiny apartment that he shared with another freshman, but he felt too acutely depressed to want to put up with the other boy’s chattering good humor. So he walked slowly back to the quad, and sat down on the same bench he’d sat on this after noon. He set the back pack down beside himself, and stared blindly out across the campus. A few students gave him strange looks as they passed, but he paid them no mind. 

Time passed. Echizen sat like a statue, not moving, his eyes turned inward towards an internal misery. He ached, but not in his body. He’d read about heartaches, of course, but he’d just thought that that was a metaphor. Now he was discovering that the heart really could hurt. His felt as though it were being squeezed by a cruel hard hand. 

A familiar voice hailed him, but it wasn’t Fuji this time. Instead, it was again the one person that he didn’t want to talk to right now. Echizen reluctantly looked up at Kawamura, not wanting to see that gentle face. The face that he wanted to smash in, even though he really liked Kawamura a lot. Kawamura’s big brown eyes were studying him in concern. The green haired prodigy had been acting strange all day, and Kawamura wondered if he were coming down with something.

“Are you all right, Echizen?” he asked.

Somehow Echizen suppressed the need to snarl in return. “Yes, I’m fine,” he replied tightly.

“Okay. I was just wondering if you were sick, or something,” Kawamura said anxiously.

Looking up into those big, brown puppy dog eyes, Echizen felt all of his ill will drain away. He couldn’t hate Kawamura. He just couldn’t. He was too nice. “No, I’m not sick,” he said miserably.

Kawamura would have said something else, but just then a pretty girl appeared and touched his arm. “I’ve been looking all over for you,” she said chidingly.

Kawamura’s face lit up. “Sorry,” he said, giving her a gentle, sweet smile that would have melted the heart of a much harder person. 

“That’s all right,” she beamed. She looked down at the green haired boy who was staring at her with a look of surprise on his face. “Who’s this?” she asked, smiling at Echizen.

“Oh. This is my friend Echizen. We’re both on the tennis team together. Echizen, this is my girlfriend Kinoko.” Kawamura made the introduction with pride, and the look he shot the girl was nothing short of dazzling. Kawamura was obviously far gone.

The pretty black-haired girl nodded her head. "It’s really nice to meet you, Echizen-kun,” she said softly. “You must be the freshman prodigy that Taka-san’s told me so much about. He says that you’re the best player he’s ever seen.”

Echizen felt a faint blush spread over his cheekbones at this statement. “I don’t know about that,” he demurred. “It’s really nice to meet you, too,” he added. “I didn’t know that Kawamura-senpai had a girlfriend.”

The girl shot Kawamura a laughing, mock rebuking look. “Is that so? Are you ashamed of me,Taka-san?” 

Kawamura blushed and stuttered “No, no,” which made her laugh outright. 

“He’s so cute,” she said to Echizen, which made Kawamura blush harder.

“Does Momo know that you have a girlfriend?” Echizen asked him abruptly. 

Kawamura looked surprised by this question. “Sure. In fact, he introduced us.”

“Yes,” added the girl with a friendly smile. “Momo-chan is a darling. I was in a couple of his classes last year, and he thought that I’d like Kawamura-san,” she shot her boyfriend a teasing glance, “So he set us up on a date. I was dubious at first, I’ll admit. But we hit it off right away.”

Kawamura nodded in agreement. Echizen felt as though a great weight had been lifted off of him, and he actually smiled at a stunned Kawamura and an amused Kinoko. She had no idea how rare that expression was on the face of the serious boy sitting on the bench in front of her. “Well, we’ve got to go,” she said. “We’re due at a student meeting. That’s why I’ve been looking all over for you,” she added to her boyfriend.

Kawamura struck his head with the heel of his hand. “Oh, Gods, I forgot about that!”

“Yes, yes. Come along, Taka-san. Bye, Echizen, it really was nice to meet you,” and the girl dragged an amiable Kawamura away across the campus. He looked over his shoulder and waved once to Echizen, before following her tamely off.

Echizen’s brows furrowed. This was a bit of a mystery. Fuji had said that Momo was trying to make one of the former Regulars jealous because he liked him. But everyone else was taken, so he’d been SURE that it was Kawamura. But Kawamura not only had a girlfriend, he’d been introduced to her by Momo! If it wasn’t Kawamura, then who was it? There was no one left.

That’s not true, pointed out a little voice in his head. There’s one former Regular left. He felt his breathing hitch and his heart begin to beat very fast as this thought intruded into his head. It couldn’t be! Could it? Could the person Momo had been trying to make jealous, the person that Momo liked – could it be…HIM?


	5. Dunk Smash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Momo gets a surprise visit...

Momo sat cross-legged on his bed, rather blindly staring at the open textbook in his lap. He could hear his roommate getting ready to go out for the night. He heard these sounds just about every night, since his room mate was a social butterfly. Momo wondered often how he managed to get passing grades, since he never saw him study. And yet he was a junior, so somehow he had to be passing his classes. It was a mystery that Momo had yet to solve.

“I’m going out,” called Ran cheerfully from near the door. As though he didn’t say this almost every night of the week. Momo merely grunted in return, having long since given up on friendlier, more civil replies.

He heard the door open, but not the sound of Ran’s retreating footsteps. Instead, he heard a soft murmur of voices at the door. He looked up just as Ran stuck his spiky blonde hair back through the door. “Momo-chan. There’s someone here to see you, darling. Cute, too. Says he’s a friend of yours. Wish I had ‘friends’ like that.”

Momo felt a strange nervous flutter somewhere in the pit of his stomach. Ran had met all of his friends, all except one…because Echizen had not yet come to his apartment, and this was his first semester. He climbed off the bed and hurried over to the door, while Ran gave him a sly look and winked at him.

And, indeed, it was Echizen. He stood outside the door looking rather nervous (for him). When Momo appeared, he looked both pleased and almost apprehensive to see him. “Hey, Echizen,” Momo said, feeling awkward around his friend for the first time ever.

“Momo,” Echizen replied quietly. “There’s something…” he trailed off, and gave Ran a LOOK under his lowered brows. “I wanted to talk to you about,” he finished.

Momo’s roommate took the hint. “Well, I know when I’m not wanted,” he said. “Have a good night, kids,” and he took his fabulous self off down the hallway, his slender hips already swaying as though he were in the dance club. Momo watched him go, so that he’d have something to do besides stare at Echizen.

After Ran had gone, Momo realized that he’d let Echizen stand out in the hall for a few minutes at least. “Uh…please come in,” he said, stepping back far enough that the boy wouldn’t brush against him when he walked into the apartment. 

Echizen paced quietly by him and stood in the middle of the room looking around. There wasn’t much to see; the apartment was tiny. There was a sliver of a kitchen, a miniscule bathroom, and two beds set up in the living room/bedroom. It had the usual student furniture – makeshift book shelves overflowing with books, a t.v. stand that was nothing more than an overturned milk crate, etc. “Won’t you sit down?” Momo said nervously, waving at his bed. There were no chairs in the room.

Echizen shot him an unfathomable look before he sat on the side of the bed gingerly. Just seeing the object of his many fantasies sitting on the edge of his bed made Momo get an erection. He blessed the fact that he was wearing a pair of sweat pants, since the thought of Echizen seeing him getting a woody was mortifying. He very carefully sat himself down on Ran’s bed opposite Echizen, and tried to look innocently enquiring. “What is it you wanted to talk to me about?” he asked, genuinely curious. It wasn’t often that Echizen ever wanted to have an actual conversation with him. In fact, this might be a red letter day.

The boy hesitated, another curious anomaly. He seemed uncertain how to begin. And he studied his shoes as though they were fascinating to him. Momo was puzzled by his behavior, and also concerned. He stared at the top of Echizen’s bent head, wondering what was bothering the prodigy so much. 

Echizen took a deep breath. With the air of a man going to his execution, he began: “Momo, I want to ask you something.”

Momo swallowed uneasily. The tone of Echizen’s voice was making him even more nervous. “Yeah?” he replied, trying to sound as cheerful and nonchalant as he could. “What is it, Echizen?”

“Do you…?” Echizen trailed off again, something he almost never did. And he sounded uncertain. “Do you…?” he sighed and took another deep breath, seeming to gather all of his courage. He raised his head, and Momo found himself looking into a pair of wide, bronze-gold eyes that shimmered with some unknown emotion. “Do you like me, Momo?” he asked in a near whisper.

Momo felt as though someone had just punched him in the chest. A curious constriction seized his lungs. Echizen COULDN’T be asking what he thought he was asking. Surely not. He stuttered, “Sure, I like you, Echizen. You’re my friend, I…” he stopped when Echizen shook his head. 

“No, I mean…do you LIKE me, Momo? As more than a friend?”

Momo was stunned silent. He WAS asking him just what he’d thought he was. His brain was going blank with a mixture of panic and joy that were tangling up together and threatening to stop his thought processes altogether. “Erk,” was all he managed to say at first, while Echizen gave him one of his serious, steady stares out from under his black brows.

“Ah...” Momo began, fighting to get his voice going again. “I…why would you ask that, Echizen?” he tried to put off answering the question, because he wasn’t sure how Echizen would react to the truth.

Echizen dropped his eyes, once more studying his tennis shoes as though he found them fascinating. “Because Fuji-senpai said that he was kissing you in the hallway at lunch because he was trying to make Tezuka-senpai jealous. And then he said that you were kissing him for the same reason, that you were trying to make someone jealous. And he wouldn’t tell me who, but he did say that it was one of the Regulars. But…well, everybody else is taken. So I was wondering…is it me you were trying to make jealous, Momo?”

Momo didn’t know whether to curse that rat fink Fuji or kiss him again. Cautiously he said: “Would it bother you if it was, Echizen?”

Echizen was silent for a moment. Then, he slowly shook his head no. Momo had the sudden urge to leap off the bed and do a cheer. Instead he said: “Then, yes. I was trying to make you jealous by kissing Fuji-senpai, Echizen. I can’t think of any other reason that I’d kiss him, believe me. He scares me spitless.”

Echizen’s lovely eyes flew up to meet Momo’s, a startled look in their depths. “Then you…do like me?” he asked uncertainly.

Momo sighed. “I’ve ‘liked’ you since you were twelve, Echizen,” he admitted. “Ever since I first saw you. I only kissed Fuji-senpai because I was hoping to get you to notice me as more than just a friend. I’ve been hoping you would for years, but no dice. I was getting desperate.”

Echizen blinked as he tried to take this bit of information in. He felt a curious blend of happiness and (even more disconcerting) fear at Momo’s confession. He looked into his friend’s purple eyes and saw his soul reflected there. He had the sudden urge to get up and dash out of the apartment, to flee before whatever this was went too far. But he suspected that it was already too late, and that running away wouldn’t solve his problems.

“W-what do we do now?” he asked quietly, trying to suppress an uneasy shiver.

Momo shook his head. “That kind of depends on you, Echizen. What do you want? How do you feel about this? You know that I like you, but do you like me in return? It’s up to you to decide.”

Echizen hesitated. Unlike on the tennis court, he was totally unsure if himself in this situation. He didn’t know what to do. He stared at Momo, at his best friend, and tried to decide what he wanted. Did he like Momo as more than a friend? Thinking about the way he’d felt when he saw Momo kissing someone else, he decided rather reluctantly, that yes, he did. But now that he’d admitted that to himself, what did he do? 

Suddenly, the thought came to him that he should treat this like a new tennis move he was learning. Go through the steps in his head, and then carry them out in reality. So, he liked Momo. Okay, good. Next step…an image came into his head of what he wanted the next step to be, and he got to his feet to carry it out. Momo stared up at him enquiringly as he walked towards him. “Echizen?” he asked hesitantly.

Echizen didn’t answer him. Instead, he put out his hands and grasped the back of Momo’s spiky black head, much as he’d seen Fuji do this afternoon. Then he bent his head and put his lips over Momo’s, experimentally kissing his stunned friend right then and there.

Momo was taken aback by Echizen’s actions, but only for a moment. He’d always been a quick recoverer. He moaned softly as he cupped Echizen’s delicate jaw and began to kiss him back, putting pressure on Echizen’s lips as he tilted his head a bit and tried to deepen the kiss. He snaked his tongue out of his mouth and tapped at Echizen’s lips, causing the boy to open his mouth in surprise. Instantly, Momo took advantage of this small opening and pushed his tongue between Echizen’s lips.

Echizen was stunned. He felt so strange, and the feel of Momo’s lips moving over his made tendrils of warmth begin to coil in his stomach. When Momo’s tongue invaded his slightly open mouth, he gasped at the sensation. That insidious tongue flicked over his, then began to lave the roof of his mouth. He felt as though he couldn’t breathe. He made soft, stunned sounds in the back of his throat, sounds that drove Momo on to plunder his mouth even more strongly. He finally had what he wanted, and he was going for it for all that he was worth. Just like on the tennis court.

When Momo finally reluctantly released him, Echizen took a half-step back and stood panting as he tried to get his breath back. His eyes were wide, and color had run up into his pale cheeks like two flags. The sight of him made Momo even harder, and he groaned as he bent over a bit to hide his lap from Echizen’s eyes. His innocent friend wasn’t yet ready for the reality of what it meant to desire someone.

Echizen wondered dimly if Momo were sick to his stomach or something. He sure sounded as though he had a tummy ache. And he was bent over himself, too. But he wasn’t clutching his stomach. And somewhere in the instinctual part of the boy, a voice was saying that that groan wasn’t being caused by any kind of pain. Except maybe a pleasurable one. It made his own stomach flutter to hear it, and a curious sensation of heat sprang up at his groin. Much to his surprise, he could feel something happening to a certain part of himself. Something that had never happened before. He felt hot and hard, and there was an unpleasant tightening in the fabric over his groin that hurt. He moaned a little, his hands fluttering near the fastenings of his pants as he wished desperately that he could just remove them to ease the uncomfortable situation.

At this sound, Momo looked up. He saw Echizen bent over himself, biting his lip, and he also saw the unmistakable signs that Echizen had an erection. He drew in a sharp, surprised breath as lust surged though him. “What’s the matter, Echizen?” he nearly purred, his voice throaty. He was so pleased at this turn of events that he contemplated doing cartwheels around the apartment.

Echizen shook his head as heat surged into his cheeks. He just COULDN’T tell Momo what was happening to him. It was too embarrassing. “Could I…use your bathroom?” he said softly.

Momo nodded, trying not to smirk triumphantly. He watched Echizen nearly crab-walk away towards the tiny bathroom, and he felt like humming happily. The door shut behind the prodigy, and Momo stretched out on Ran’s bed and put his hands behind his head. He stared up at the ceiling, grinning to himself, wondering if Echizen would even know what to do to relieve himself of the ‘problem’ that he’d suddenly developed. Probably not. Echizen could be amazingly clueless about things not having to do with tennis. Maybe I could offer to help him out? Momo thought with an internal grin.

Inside the bathroom, Echizen hurriedly undid his pants and yanked them and his boxers down around his knees. He sat down on the toilet and stared with something like perplexity at his penis. If Momo could have seen the look on his face at that moment, he would have howled with laughter. Before he offered to ‘help’ him with the situation. But as it was, Echizen was alone and almost bewildered by his first-ever erection. It wasn't that he didn't know what it was, or what lust and sex were all about. How could he not know all of that, with a father as perverted as his was? But he had no personal experience with hard-ons or lusting after someone, so he was out of his element here. Uncertainly he reached out to touch his penis, and nearly jumped at the sensation of his own fingertips on it. He moaned a little, biting his lip. It felt strangely good…so he touched it again, still hesitantly, and gasped. But fear made him stop, fear of the unknown and powerful sensations coursing through him. He bent his head, wondering what he should do. Would it go away? What should he do? What if it didn’t go away? How long was he supposed to camp out in Momo’s bathroom waiting?

Echizen decided to ask for Momo’s help. His friend had always been far more worldly than he was…maybe he’d know what to do. Hesitantly he called out “Momo?”

“Yeah?” Momo’s voice asked cheerfully from out in the other room.

“I..I have a problem. Can you help me?” Echizen’s voice sounded almost plaintive.

Momo got up from the bed grinning, and went over to the bathroom door. “Sure,” he said slyly. “I’ll be happy to ‘help’, Echizen” 

He turned the knob and pushed open the door. The sight of Echizen sitting on the toilet with his pants around his ankles and his hands trying to conceal his erection was such a turn on for Momo that it was a wonder that he didn’t just come in his sweat pants right then and there. He suppressed a groan as he looked into Echizen’s bewildered eyes. “What’s the matter?” he asked as though he didn’t already know.

“I…” Echizen seemed uncertain how to start. He finally just removed his hands and displayed his hard-on to his friend, in a silent plea for help that made Momo gasp and suppress the urge to lick his lips. 

“Oh,” he said. “Is this your first one, Echizen?”

The boy nodded his head. Momo sighed happily. He'd given the lovely Echizen Ryoma his first ever stiffie! “I'd love to help you with that, Echizen."

“What should I...do?" Echizen asked, his hand still hovering over his throbbing erection.

Momo smiled lopsidedly. “You don't have to do anything, Ryo. Just let me take care of you, okay?"

Echizen nodded trustingly. Momo walked forward and knelt down in front of the startled Echizen. “Don’t be afraid,” he said softly to him. “You trust me, right? So don’t be scared of anything I do.”

Echizen nodded, still meeting Momo’s eyes. Momo sighed in pleasure and leaned forward to softly kiss his friend on the lips again. With this as a distraction, he snaked his hand into Echizen’s lap and gently took a hold of his cock. The boy made a startled sound into Momo’s mouth, then moaned breathily as Momo’s hand began to move. Echizen’s head jerked back as Momo began to stroke him, and he nearly wailed “Momo!” as he gripped at Momo’s shoulders. There was fear mingled with pleasure in his tones.

“Don’t be afraid, Echizen,” Momo soothed, never stopping the motion of his hand. “It’s all right. This is how you get rid of an erection.” He ran his thumb over the leaking tip, and Echizen made a frantic noise in the back of his throat and thrust his hips up at Momo in an instinctive gesture.

Echizen was losing his mind. It was just so good, the feel of Momo’s hand on him. All he could do was buck his hips and pant, noises torn from his throat as Momo relentlessly stroked and caressed him. His fingers dug into Momo’s shoulders through the fabric of his shirt. Something was coming, something was going to happen, he could feel it coiling in the muscles of his abdomen as they tightened….

Momo!” screamed Echizen in astonished wonder as he arched his back and came all over Momo’s hand. His eyes were twisted shut, his face was bright red, and his mouth hung open as he gasped for breath. He was the most beautiful, sexy sight that Momo had even seen. 

Once he’d done spurting, Echizen slumped forward. His head came to rest on Momo’s shoulder, and the boy smiled as he stroke the sweat-dampened dark-green hair. “You okay, Echizen?” he asked softly. Having no strength left to reply, Echizen merely nodded a little. 

Momo held him as he put out a hand to grab some toilet paper. He cleaned Echizen’s semen off of his hand with it. Not that he would have minded licking it off his fingers, but he wasn’t sure how Echizen would react to that sight just yet. His friend was completely inexperienced. He didn’t want to freak him out at this early stage.

Echizen rather dazedly lifted his head from Momo’s shoulder. “What?” he began, trying to understand what had just happened to him.

“You came,” Momo explained. “That’s what happens when you get an erection. Or what should happen, anyway,” he added in satisfaction. “It’s all fixed, see?” and he motioned to Echizen’s now flaccid cock, which made the boy blush a bit.

“Oh. It was…” Echizen had no words for how his first orgasm had made him feel.

Momo smiled up at him. "I know,” he said.

Echizen blinked. “You mean that you...?” he began.

Momo nodded. “I get them all the time," he explained. "Especially when I'm with someone I like. Like you," he said with a smile, leaning forward to softly kiss Echizen's ;lips. "Someone I want to have sex with," he added as he pulled away.

Echizen thought of the way he’d felt when he saw Momo kissing Fuji, and his cheeks heated even more. “So…I want to have sex with you?” he asked Momo, trying to understand.

Momo’s eyes widened at the unconscious sensuality inherit in this naïve question. “Probably,” he replied cautiously, while adding silently, :Gods, I hope so:

“Ahh.” Echizen was silent for a moment, the wheels turning in his head. “Okay," he said at last. “So when do we have sex?”

Momo nearly fell over on his ass. His eyes widened as he stared up at Echizen, and then he began to laugh. Echizen’s brows drew together a little, as he wondered what he’d said that was so funny.

“I’m sorry, Echizen!” gasped Momo, waving his hand weakly in the air. “You just took me by surprise, is all. I mean…do you want to have sex with me?” he asked hopefully.

Echizen thought about this question. “Yes. I…I think so,” he added uncertainly.

Momo sighed. “My poor, naïve Echizen. You need some time to figure stuff out, since this is the first time for you liking someone and wanting to have sex with them. I’m not going to take advantage of you, no matter how much I want to. How about this…I’ll teach you about sex, a little at a time, just like if I was showing you how to do a new tennis move. How would that be?”

Echizen liked the sound of that. He was still a little uncertain about this whole thing, despite how good the thing that had just happened to him had felt. “All right,” he conceded. 

Momo beamed. “That’s great. How about if you come back here tomorrow for your next lesson? We can study, too, afterward.”

Echizen liked the sound of that even more. He liked studying with Momo. “Okay. Momo?” he began as Momo helped him to stand up and pull his pants back up. 

“Mm?” 

“Are you…I mean…if we’re doing this together, does that mean that we’re…together?”

Momo’s hands stilled at the fastening of his pants. He looked up into Echizen’s solemn stare. “Do you mean ‘are we boyfriends’ now?” he asked.

Echizen nodded uncertainly.

Momo smiled at him. “Do you want to be?” he asked hopefully.

Echizen hesitated. But then he finally nodded again, very slightly. Momo’s smile widened. “Well, then, that’s settled,” he said happily. “We’re boyfriends. I’ll even take you out on dates, if you want me to.”

Echizen mulled that over. “Maybe once in awhile,” he decided aloud.

“Great,” Momo got to his feet and kissed Echizen lightly on the mouth. “Come on now, Koi, I have to get back to studying if I want to pass Algebra,” he steered Echizen out into the living room/bed room, delighting in Echizen’s slight blush when he called him ‘lover’. 

He walked Echizen to the door, then kissed him again before he gently urged him out of the apartment. Echizen graced him with a small smile before he walked away, and Momo waved after him with a grin on his face. When Echizen was gone, Momo turned with a great shout of glee and threw himself face upward on his bed. “Yes!” he yelled happily to the universe at large. He pumped his fist in the air, yelping with joy. When he finally got it all out of his system, he hurriedly pushed his sweat pants down and took his own ‘problem’ in hand. Remembering Echizen’s kisses, and the look on his face when he’d climaxed in Momo’s hand, it didn’t take him long to come with a groan. “Ahh, Echizen,” he murmured in lazy satisfaction once he’d finished. “I really love you.” But that was one thing that he wasn’t going to tell his friend…no scratch that….boyfriend just yet. Everything else would be a little much for Echizen to take in without the added knowledge that Momo loved him. But someday…Someday he’d tell him. He couldn’t wait for that day to come. He closed his eyes and let images of Echizen’s face accompany him into sleep.


	6. Boomerang Snake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> theg olden pair inadvertently cause a scene, and Kaidoh makes a confession to Inui

The next afternoon, the former Regulars met yet again to have lunch together. With one addition. Oishi and Eiji had arrived a bit early with a slender, handsome boy with big brown eyes and a sweet smile. They’d introduced him to Inui, Kaidoh, Tezuka, Fuji and Kawamura as Fujiyama Hirose. Momo and Echizen hadn’t arrived yet, and the Golden Pair chatted with Hirose while they waited for Momo to show up. 

Inui merely raised an eyebrow at the introduction. Kaidoh, seated next to him on the bench, eyed the strange young man curiously. “What’s up with that?” he asked.

“There is a 96.2 per cent probability that they brought him along to introduce him to Momo,” Inui murmured, studying the Golden Pair and their guest over the top of his glasses.

Kaidoh snorted. “Why? What’d he do wrong that they want to punish him like that?”

Inui’s lips twitched at the Viper’s venom. Kaidoh really did loathe Momo. He’d always found their rivalry quite funny, especially as in some ways they were very much alike. “They appear to be playing matchmakers,” was all he said to Kaidoh’s remark.

“I feel sorry for that guy, then,” Kaidoh replied.

Inui might have said something else, but just then Momo appeared. He came down the hallway practically running, not because he was late but for the sheer joy of it. His purple eyes were dancing, and he had a huge grin on his face. Momo was on top of the world, and looked it. Inui’s eyebrows shot up when he saw him, and a small smile slid over his mouth. Fuji grinned like a demon when he saw Momo’s expression, and even Tezuka looked faintly pleased. Kawamura was puzzled by how happy his friend seemed, but he was glad. Momo had seemed awfully down these last few weeks. It was good to see him back to his usual self. 

Kaidoh hissed when he saw Momo’s face. “What’s gotten into him?” he wondered. 

Inui mumbled something that sounded like ‘something that he’s gotten into, instead’, but he couldn’t be sure that that was what his senpai had said. And Inui refused to speak up, even when Kaidoh pressed him to. The Viper frowned at him and went back to watching Momo, who was just coming abreast of the Golden Pair and the young man they’d introduced as Hirose.

“Momo-chan!” squealed Eiji happily. “There you are! Come and meet someone! Takeshi Momoshiro, this is Fujiyama Hirose.”

Momo had stopped and turned to talk to Eiji, and his brows shot up a bit as Eiji introduced him to the good looking junior that was standing with him and Oishi. The young man wore an interested expression as he looked at Momo, one that made Momo gulp. He recognized that look. He realized that the Golden Pair were trying to set him up with this guy, and he wondered how he could get out of it without hurting the obviously nice guy’s feelings. “Pleased to meet you,” the young man was saying, putting out his hand to shake Momo’s. 

Momo took it reluctantly, and felt his stomach sink at the smile on the brown-eyed man’s face. “Nice to meet you,” he mumbled, as his mind raced to try to find a way out of this.

“Oishi-senpai and Eiji-senpai have told me a lot about you,” Hirose continued, not dropping Momo’s hand. Momo fought not to squirm. The watchers who knew what was going on were torn between amusement at Momo’s plight and curiosity about how this would turn out. The Golden Pair were beaming, thinking that they were helping their friend Momo out. Really, Fuji thought, this is better than the plot of a movie!

Into this fraught situation walked the other player in the drama. Echizen came down the hallway from the direction of the mens' room, and a small frown moved over his mouth as he saw Momo standing talking to a guy who was apparently holding Momo’s hand. His brows snapped down, and anger swam up from the depths of his eyes and made them glow gold. Fuji spotted his arrival first, and nearly chortled with glee. Oh, the shit was about to hit the fan now!

Echizen marched down the hallway toward the small group. Momo didn’t see him coming, because he was trying to think of a way to disengage himself from Hirose. The Junior was too busy gazing at Momo to see the enraged boy heading towards them, and the Golden Pair were watching the interaction between Momo and Hirose. Only the more distant observers saw the train wreck about to happen. Kaidoh blinked as Echizen stormed by, wondering what had got the prodigy worked up.

The hair stood up on the back of Momo’s head as a familiar voice hissed coldly behind them: “Would you like you take your hand off of my boyfriend before you lose it?” he’d never heard that much anger in Echizen’s voice before, and Hirose’s eyes widened as he met the twenty mega-ton glare in a pair of nearly gold eyes. He hurriedly dropped Momo’s hand, as Oishi and Eiji gaped at the sight of a furious Echizen.

Momo turned around to see a breathtakingly enraged Echizen looking daggers at Hirose. “Uh, Echizen, it’s not what you think,” he said hurriedly.

Echizen’s gaze snapped to his face, and for a moment Momo sweated horribly. Then those bronze-gold eyes softened, and Echizen stepped forward and proceeded to kiss Momo right there and then in the middle of the hallway. This was the second time in two days that a pair of the former Regulars had made out in public, and it was almost as big a shock as yesterday. Only Inui, Fuji, and Tezuka didn’t react with total disbelief. Eiji’s eyes were huge, Oishi’s mouth hung open, Kawamura looked as though his brain had seized up, and Kaidoh was frankly stunned. 

Momo was so happy that Echizen didn’t appear to be mad at him that he didn’t even try to stop the kiss. Instead, he brought up his hands to cup the back of Echizen’s head tenderly as he deepened the kiss. He loved the breathy moans coming from his new lover, and the rest of the world retreated as Momo feasted on Echizen’s mouth. 

'Okay', Kaidoh thought, 'Inui was right. As usual.' This kiss was even hotter than the one yesterday had been, since it was obvious that this wasn’t staged. And Echizen kissed with an awkward, untutored sensuality that made Kaidoh feel rather warm around the collar just to watch it. He leaned over, never taking his eyes off of the pair, and said: “You were right, Inui-senpai.”

Inui nodded, also watching the show. “There was a 72 per cent probability that something like this would happen once Echizen saw that Junior Hirose-kun holding Momo-chan’s hand,” he murmured. “Echizen has proved to be surprisingly jealous and possessive of Momo.”

Hirose stood uncertainly, wondering what to do. His friends had told him that the handsome sophomore was single, but that was obviously not right. But from the looks on their faces, Eiji and Oishi hadn’t been aware that Momo had a boyfriend. So he couldn’t blame them. But he decided not to stick around, because that freshman had looked pretty scary when he glared at him. He didn’t want to get the shit beat out of him by a jealous lover.

“I’ve gotta go,” he said quietly to the Golden Pair. 

Eiji’s eyes snapped away from the kissing couple, and he made an awkward, apologetic gesture with one hand. “I’m really sorry, Hirose-kun,” he whispered. “We didn’t know that Momo and Echizen…”

“I know,” Hirose replied. “It’s all right. But I don’t think that I’m wanted right now, so I’ll be going,” he smiled at his friends to show that there was no hard feelings, and took his leave quickly and without ceremony. He thought it was best to put as much distance between himself and that freshman as possible.

Oishi looked down at Eiji. “I think we screwed up,” he said softly. 

Eiji nodded. "But how were we supposed to know that the Ochibi liked Momo-chan?” he asked in disbelief, glancing at the two still going at it in the middle of the hallway.

Oishi shrugged. There was no way that they could have known. Still, it had made for a really awkward situation. “I hope Echizen’s not mad at us,” he murmured.

Eiji’s sapphire eyes widened. “Oh, no. Do you think he might be? We didn’t do it on purpose…”

 

Right about then, Momo finally became aware of the fact that he and Echizen were making out in public in front of all their friends and the other shocked, startled students who were on their way into the cafeteria and had stopped to gawk at the free show. He reluctantly disengaged his mouth from Echizen’s, groaning at the sight of the boy’s flushed cheeks, kiss swollen lips, and rather glazed bronze-gold eyes. Echizen blinked up at him, obviously still not plugged back into the real world yet. Momo gave him a little push. “We can’t keep doing this here, Echizen,” he said firmly. “There’s too much of an audience.”

Echizen became aware of the on-lookers, as well, and he blushed a dark red. He hid his face against Momo’s neck, so embarrassed that he could barely breathe. Momo only laughed and cupped the back of his head comfortingly. “It’s okay,” he said soothingly. “I don’t think anyone minded.” 

Fuji just couldn’t help making it worse. “Yeah, Echizen, don’t worry. That was the hottest thing I’ve seen in awhile.”

Tezuka rolled his eyes at his lover as Echizen made a small mewling noise and tried to burrow deeper into Momo’s neck. “You’re not helping,” Tezuka said sternly to Fuji, who merely shrugged.

“I still can’t believe all of this,” Kaidoh said near Inui’s ear. “Momo was trying to make Echizen jealous? That’s why he kissed Fuji yesterday? And it worked?!” 

“Apparently,” Inui replied. “I’m not surprised, though. Echizen was trying to find out yesterday which of the Regulars that Momo was trying to make jealous. I guess he figured it out. Not that it was a difficult problem to solve. The only real candidates were himself and Kawamura.”

“Kawamura? Isn’t he straight?” Kaidoh said.

“Indeed. But I didn’t tell Echizen that when I was helping him yesterday. I thought some things he should figure out for himself.”

Kaidoh shot him a suspicious look. “ ‘Helping’ him? How did you ‘help’ him?” 

Inui sighed. Kaidoh could sometimes be jealous himself, a fact that he usually rather enjoyed. But today it just annoyed him, since this WAS Echizen they were talking about. “He came to me for advice on kissing,” he said dryly. “I was happy to assist him by demonstrating the correct way to go about it.”

“WHAT?!” Kaidoh nearly screamed. His black eyes were snapping, and his loud exclamation drew the attention of everyone in the hallway away from Momo and Echizen. The rest of the Regulars turned to see what had upset the Viper. 

Inui merely raised a single eyebrow at his lover. He absolutely refused to apologize or explain. If Kaidoh was going to act like a stupid, jealous young girl, he wasn’t going to try to soothe his feelings. The Viper should know by now that Inui was faithful to him. Kaidoh hissed furiously and made a move to get up. Sensing that he might try to do something to Echizen, Inui put out a hand and gripped his arm tightly. “Sit down,” he commanded sternly, and Kaidoh obeyed even though he was obviously furious. 

“I did not, I repeat, did NOT kiss Echizen,” Inui told his lover coolly. “I only told you that because I was annoyed that you immediately assumed that something might have happened between us. You should know better by now. When have I ever given you cause to think that I want anyone else but you?”

Kaidoh’s eyes widened at these stern words. Then his face crumpled, and to Inui’s amazement he bent his head and began to sob. He’d never seen Kaidoh shed so much as a tear. He stared at his lover’s bent head, then up at the amazed, shocked sets of eyes all trained on Kaidoh. “Could you all please give us a moment?” Inui asked in a tone that made it an order. Everyone took the hint and departed hastily for the cafeteria.

Tezuka had to drag Fuji away by the arm, as the prodigy wanted to stay to see what happened. Fuji pouted at his lover as Tezuka inexorably drew him through the doors. “You’re no fun, Tezuka!” he complained.

“That’s not what you said last night,” Tezuka replied, and then laughed at the look on Fuji’s face at this quip.

 

Out in the suddenly empty hallway, Inui still wasn’t quite sure what to do. He’d never been faced with a situation quite like this one before. He knew that he should comfort his distraught lover, but comforting someone wasn’t exactly a skill that he was familiar with. He finally settled for putting his hand on Kaidoh’s slumped shoulder and giving it an awkward pat. “It’s all right, Kaidoh,” he said. “I’m not mad at you.”

The Viper made a harsh sound at this small gesture and hurled himself on Inui’s shoulder. The data specialist rocked under this sudden move, and felt twice as out of his depth as before. Kaidoh’s black head rested on his shoulder, and he could feel the damp warmth of his tears. “I’m sorry,” sniffled Kaidoh mournfully. “I’m so sorry, Inui-senpai. It’s just…I…I can’t stand the thought of you with anybody else,” he confessed unhappily.

Inui reached up to stroke the unruly black locks. “That’s all right, Kaidoh,” he said softly. “I feel the same way about you.”

“You…you do?”

Inui nodded. “Yes. You’re mine, Kaidoh. I would be extremely angry if you ever left me for someone else.”

“Inui-senpai!” Kaidoh said in a near wail. He tightened his arms around Inui, and nuzzled his nose into his shoulder like a puppy seeking its mother’s warmth. “I…I love you,” he confessed very softly.

Both of Inui’s eyebrows flew up at these words. Kaidoh had never said anything remotely similar to him before in the two years they had been together. Not that he ever had, either. Inui felt a curious sense of warmth settle somewhere near the region of his heart, and the sweetest smile that had ever graced his lips spread over his face. “There is a one hundred-per-cent probability that I return the sentiment,” he said quietly near Kaidoh’s ear. The Viper’s eyes snapped open, and he gave Inui an incredulous look.

“Really?” he asked uncertainly.

Inui nodded. Kaidoh’s eyes began to shine until they resembled two chips of agate. “Inui-senpai,” he breathed, and would have kissed his lover right then and there. But Inui forestalled him.

“I think that the school has been shocked enough for one day,” he remarked, pulling Kaidoh to his feet. “Come on, let’s go.” He started leading Kaidoh down the hallway, away from the cafeteria.

“Where are we going?” asked Kaidoh.

Inui looked at his over his shoulder. "We’re going home,” he said firmly.

Kaidoh’s brows drew together. “But we have class this afternoon!” he protested.

Inui shrugged. “I can get the notes from Tezuka and Oishi,” he said indifferently. “And I’m sure you can find others who will lend you their notes, as well.”

“You want to skip class?” Kaidoh said incredulously. This was an unheard of event.

Inui’s lips quirked. “There are more important things than school,” he said quietly, and Kaidoh felt the breath knocked out of him in a rush at the implication of those words. He made no more demur as Inui drew him relentlessly away down the hall and out the door.


	7. Top Spin Lob

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inui ruminates on how he and Kaidoh got together, and Momo and Echizen 'study'.

Afternoon sunlight fell through the windows of the small apartment and illumined the two figures entwined on the bed. It etched a golden glow onto Kaidoh’s back as he arched it away from Inui’s body. His head went back, and he moaned, “Ahh, Inui-senpai!” as his fingers scrabbled at Inui’s shoulders. The data specialist tightened his fingers on Kaidoh’s hips, regulating the pace at which the Viper lifted and lowered himself onto Inui’s cock. Kaidoh’s legs wrapped themselves even tighter around Inui’s waist as his prostate was prodded by the tip of Inui's erection. His breathing began to hitch. He was close to coming, driven to the edge by his lover’s slow, sure thrusts up into him.

Inui loved this position. He liked watching the Viper twist and writhe over him, and to look up into Kaidoh’s face as he lost himself in pleasure. A dark red flush had spread over the Viper’s chest, neck and face, and his black hair clung to his forehead in sweaty strands. He trembled as he approached his climax, and his hissing gasps for air were pulling Inui along with him. 

Everywhere else, Kaidoh was power and aggression. Especially on the tennis court. Inui was the only one who got to see this other side of him, to see him fall apart and practically turn into mush. In bed, Kaidoh became just a little bit submissive, just enough that it turned Inui on totally without turning Kaidoh into a total uke. 

Inui could tell that he wasn’t going to be able to hold out much longer. The Vipers’ cries were becoming louder, and he surged in Inui’s lap as he worked himself towards orgasm. Inui let go of one of his hips and wrapped his hand around Kaidoh’s cock, stroking it harshly to help him along. This proved to be too much for him, and Kaidoh nearly screamed as he came all over Inui’s stomach and hand. His internal muscles clenched tight like a vise, milking Inui’s own orgasm out of him. The data specialist moaned softly as he came, feeling as though his intestines were being dragged from him by the hot, tight clasp of Kaidoh’s muscles around him.

Kaidoh’s black head wilted onto Inui’s shoulder. He shuddered as his cock jerked in Inui’s fist, the last of his semen dribbling out of him as the waves of pleasure washed through him. Inui sat with his head bent, savoring the aftershocks of his own orgasm and the feel of his lover still twitching around his semi-erect cock. His thumb stroked Kaidoh’s hip absently as he enjoyed the afterglow of a particularly intense bout of sex.

It had been absolutely the right decision to cut class this afternoon, Inui thought. There was no way that he could have concentrated on the lectures with Kaidoh’s declaration of love still ringing in his ears. All he would have done was day dream about what he’d do to his lover once they got home, anyway. Better to get the pent up endorphins caused by that emotional scene out of the way. And boy had they done that. Three times so far. Inui was starting to feel rather tired, but in a decidedly good way. 

Kaidoh stirred against his shoulder. He lifted his head so that Inui could see the mellow glow in the obsidian eyes he loved so much. The Viper blinked at him rather sleepily. Mush, Inui thought fondly as he lifted a hand to stroke Kaidoh’s cheek. 

“There is at least a fifty-per-cent probability that you’ve killed me,” Inui said. Kaidoh only smiled a slow lazy smile that only Inui had ever seen. The Viper seldom smiled around anyone else, and when he did they were usually more grimaces than anything else.

“I need to get up,” Inui finally said reluctantly. “I have to go to the bathroom. Would you make us a cup of tea?”

Kaidoh nodded as he slipped off of Inui’s lap. The data specialist watched appreciatively for a moment as the Viper padded naked into their pocket handkerchief sized kitchen to put the kettle on to boil. Kaidoh was all muscle and bone, a perfect machine honed by his intensive training sessions. He was a beautiful animal, sensual and strong. And all of that gorgeous body belongs to me, Inui thought in satisfaction as he got up to go use the bathroom.

When he came back out, he saw Kaidoh leaning against the counter while stroking their cat. The shadow grey tabby was arching its back and purring loudly. Kaidoh had brought the beast home with him almost a year ago. He’d found the tiny creature huddled in an alley on one of his runs, a miserable ball of fur no more than five weeks old. He’d seen no sign of its mother anywhere. So he tucked it up in his jersey against his skin and brought it back to their small apartment. He’d hand-fed the kitten himself. It had not only survived but thrived, growing into a slender, long-legged beast with large, mint-green eyes.

That was when Inui had discovered yet another facet of Kaidoh’s fascinating personality. The big, bad Viper adored animals. The kitten, which he’d named Shade because of its coloring, had quickly wrapped Kaidoh around its little paw. All it had to do was mew up at him pleadingly, and he would cook it bits of fish or set down a dish of milk for it. He would spends hours petting or playing with it. The cat had taken to sleeping across his shoulders when he did his homework, draped over him like a furry shawl. Inui was both amazed and amused by this turn of events, and found Kaidoh’s adoration of the cat to be utterly cute.

He actually liked Shade himself. The cat would curl up in his lap when he was at his computer, and spend hours purring while he typed. The only thing he objected to was the fact that, like all cats, Shade was a natural computer programmer. All he had to do was stroll across the keyboard once, and he could somehow hit the right button to delete an entire term paper. Plus, he shed hair onto the keyboard, which did not help its life expectancy any. All in all, though, it was a small price to pay for something that made his lover so happy. 

Kaidoh looked up from stroking the cat and smiled at him. Inui returned it with a small smile of his own, remembering the shower incident two years ago that had been the beginning of their relationship. He’d actually desired Kaidoh for most of their high school years together, but the Viper had never shown any interest in men. He’d had several girlfriends, in fact. Girls were drawn like flies to honey by the Viper’s sullen ‘bad boy’ routine. Inui had come to accept that he might never get what he wanted, and had resigned himself to it. 

Like Momo, he hadn’t particularly liked his first year of college away from Kaidoh. Even if the Viper never shown any interest in him sexually, he was willing to take friendship. While it might be a pleasurable sort of torture to be around Kaidoh constantly without being able to touch or hold him, it was a very not pleasurable sort of torture to be away from him for over a year. He’d breathed a sigh of relief when Kaidoh arrived at the college as a freshman. 

He’d noticed right away, with his sharp penetrating eyes, that there was something different about Kaidoh. He just wasn’t sure what it was. He watched him closely, seeing the subtle differences in his behavior, and noticed that most of the changes seemed to be towards him. Something in Kaidoh’s attitude towards Inui was different, but the data specialist couldn’t quite determine what that was. It was driving him crazy. He liked to know things, and dealing with an unknown factor in his friendship with Kaidoh was not pleasant. He’d finally decided to ask Kaidoh about it outright, but before he could do that the shower incident took place.

It was a Monday afternoon about six weeks into the first semester, and Inui had been in the locker room changing out of the clothes he’d practiced in. Not far away, Kaidoh was also stripping out of his work out clothes. Inui had been very subtly watching this show, enjoying the play of muscles in Kaidoh’s back as he bent over to untie the laces on his tennis shoes. The locker room was empty except for the two of them, because Inui had waited until the other practices were over to practice with Kaidoh. Inui secretly blessed the invention of locker rooms, where the object of his secret desire could strip so casually in front of him. All of Inui’s masturbation fantasies had come from these after practice sessions. As Kaidoh stood up with a towel wrapped around his waist and walked into the communal shower, Inui hurriedly finished stripping himself and followed him. 

Watching Kaidoh soap up his powerful, compact body would have made someone with less control than Inui drool heavily. The only reason he wasn’t sporting an erection was the fact that he had to leave his glasses on a towel outside the shower, so he really couldn’t see very much of Kaidoh’s ablutions. It was beneath his dignity to squint. Not to mention the fact that Kaidoh might have noticed that Inui was trying to ogle him.

He’d turned around to tilt his face up into the shower spray, and he was startled when he felt two powerful arms slide around him from behind. His mouth opened in a startled gasp, and he almost choked to death when water went down his throat from the shower spray. He’d coughed desperately for air as a strong hand pounded him on the back. “Are you all right, Inui-senpai?” Kaidoh’s voice had asked in concern from over his shoulder.

“Y-yes,” Inui had spluttered when he could speak again at last.

“Good. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you just as I was making my move,” Kaidoh had hissed in his ear. Inui had been so taken aback by these words that he’d frozen for a second, not really believing what his ears were hearing. 

Those strong hands had effortlessly turned him around, and before he could regain his equilibrium he found himself being kissed by the Viper. Astonishment had given way to a wave of desire as Kaidoh’s tongue had inserted itself into his mouth in a leisurely fashion. That was the one and only time when Kaidoh had been in charge, having most effectively taken Inui totally by surprise. It didn’t take the data specialist long to adjust to the new situation, however, and he’d turned the tables on Kaidoh by aggressively pushing him up against the tiled shower wall and beginning to seduce him then and there. He hadn’t cared that someone might have showed up; all he wanted was to take advantage of the miracle that seemed to have occurred. Their first time together had been right then and there up against the shower wall, and Kaidoh had confessed afterwards that he’d had a lot of time to think and miss Inui the year before when he was off at college, and to come to the realization that he cared for his senpai in a way that was more than just ‘friends’. He’d known instinctively that Inui would never approach him because he believed that Kaidoh was completely straight. So he’d taken it upon himself to communicate to Inui that he was ready for a change in their relationship.

Inui smiled to himself now as he watched his lover scratch behind Shade’s ears. He blessed the fact that Kaidoh always aggressively went for what he wanted, because otherwise they might still be dancing around each other instead of being together. Kaidoh saw the smile, and gave him a questioning look. “I was just thinking about the shower incident,” Inui said simply, and Kaidoh’s eyes gleamed. They both remembered that particular shower with fondness, and they’d neither of them ever looked at the communal shower in the locker room in quite the same way again.

 

“It sure has been a weird couple of days,” Echizen commented as he walked into Momo’s apartment with his book bag slung over his back.

“You can say that again,” Momo agreed fervently as he followed Echizen through the door and shut it behind him. Not only had there been that whole scene with Echizen threatening that poor Junior Hirose, AND he and Echizen making out right there in the middle of the hallway for everyone to see; but KAIDOH of all people had started crying! Neither Inui nor Kaidoh had appeared for lunch, and Momo had heard from Oishi at practice(which neither of them showed up for, either) that both the Viper and the data specialist had cut their classes and disappeared. That was just too bizarre.

Fuji had simply laughed over the whole thing. “Bet I know where they went,” he said shrewdly, scrunching up his eyes in amusement. And while Momo just didn’t ever want to think about those two going at it, he had to agree with the brown-haired prodigy on this one. Echizen had looked puzzled by this comment, and Momo had said out of the side of his mouth to him: "I’ll explain later.”

Momo threw his own book bag on his bed, and Echizen took off his and put it far more decorously down beside Momo’s. Momo flopped down on his roommate’s bed and stretched his arms over his head. “Whee, I’m tired,” he said, for Tezuka had brow beaten them into practicing even harder than normal, probably to make up for the absence of Inui and Kaidoh.

Echizen sat down on Momo’s bed and nodded his head in silent agreement. “Wish I didn’t have so much homework,” Momo said mournfully. He turned his head to smile at Echizen suddenly. “It won’t be so bad, though, now that I’ve got you to study with.”

Echizen agreed, but he couldn’t forget the other thing that Momo had promised to do with him today. His awakening young body craved more of the sensation that it had first experienced yesterday at Momo’s hands, and he squirmed a little at the thought as his penis began to stiffen and fill with blood. He moaned very softly at the uncomfortable tightness at his groin, and Momo’s head came up off the bed as he heard and recognized that sound. He definitely wasn’t too tired for this. 

“What’s the matter, Echizen?” He asked cheerfully as he sat up. The boy didn’t answer, although a blush began to rise in his cheeks.

“Oh, that’s right,” Momo said, grinning. “There was something else we were going to do before we studied, huh?”

Echizen glared at him, but Momo wasn’t put off by his glower. He got up and walked over to his bed, still smiling. He leaned over and kissed Echizen deeply, and the prodigy forgot about his annoyance as he lifted his head and opened his mouth to Momo’s questing tongue. Even as he kissed Echizen, Momo’s fingers pulled at the hem of the sweat shirt he was wearing, pulling it up to bare the muscular chest and stomach to his touch. Echizen moaned into the kiss as Momo’s clever fingers slid up his chest and flicked at one of his nipples.

Momo pulled away from Echizen’s sweet mouth long enough to tell him: "Take your clothes off, Echizen.” At Echizen’s uncertain look, Momo smiled “I can’t give you your next lesson about sex if you don’t,” and he reached up to pull off his own sweat shirt with an impatient movement.

Echizen had seen Momo’s bare chest before, but this time he found himself staring at it, riveted. The sculpted muscles, toned by all the training that Momo did, rolled under his pale skin as he stretched a bit. The boy found himself fascinated by the play of muscles, and Momo noticed his stare and deliberately stretched his arms further over his head to show off to his little lover. With a chuckle, since Echizen seemed incapable of movement, he bent over and took hold of the fabric of Ryo’s sweatshirt and pulled it off over his head. He tossed it away, enjoying in turn the sight of Echizen’s chest and arms. 

“Stand up,” he directed Echizen, and the boy did as he said. Momo unfastened his pants and pushed them down over his legs, making the prodigy’s blush deepened a bit as his semi-hard cock was revealed to Momo’s eyes. Momo directed him to step out of his pants, and he did so. Momo ran his hands up the back of Echizen’s legs and over his tight little buttocks, causing a shiver to run through Ryoma’s body at the feel of Momo’s hands cupping his ass. 

Momo kissed his stomach, dipping his tongue briefly into Echizen’s belly button. The prodigy gasped softly, his stomach muscles jerking. His fingers fluttered in the air before settling on Momo’s shoulders. Momo’s insidious tongue ghosted up his pectorals and licked at one of his nipples, and he jerked and gave forth a nearly breathless cry at the feel of it. Sliding his tongue across Echizen’s chest, Momo began to suck at the other nipple even as his fingers pinched the nipple he’d just licked. Echizen could feel his knees trying to buckle. Momo slung one of his arms around his waist to keep him standing as he continued to drive him crazy with his mouth. 

“Momo!” cried Echizen, and Momo gave a last leisurely lick to the erect nipple before he pulled away and looked up into Echizen’s face. He was satisfied to see the flush beginning to spread up Ryo’s chest and neck, and the way he panted for breath.

“Echizen,” he said, and the bronze-gold eyes opened to look down into his face. “I’m going to do something that I know you’ll really like, so don’t be freaked out by it, okay?”

Echizen gathered himself enough to nod silently. Momo smiled at him encouragingly before he bent down and took Echizen’s cock into his mouth. The prodigy nearly screamed at the unfamiliar feel of that hot, wet mouth closing around him, and his head went back as he desperately fought for air. Momo’s mouth sucked at him with a soft pressure, and he couldn’t believe how good it felt. His brain was melting. His nails scrabbled at Momo’s bare shoulders, and cry after cry was torn from his lips as the relentless sucking and licking continued. One of Momo’s hand stroked his balls in time with the movement of his mouth, and it was too much, it was too good, he couldn’t take it anymore…he came with a last loud cry, emptying himself into Momo’s mouth while his hips jerked wildly and Momo’s strong hands held him up so that he didn’t just fall down onto the floor when his legs turned to jelly.

Momo licked one last time at the tip of Echizen’s cock as he withdrew his mouth. The boy was nearly hanging in his hands, his head bent and his hands limp on Momo’s shoulders. Momo grinned, thoroughly pleased. His green haired lover looked so hot and sexy in the aftermath of his coming. It made Momo’s own cock throb just to look at him. He’d have to do something about it soon, or he’d come in his pants. For now he said: “You all right, Echizen?”

The prodigy lifted his head slowly to peer down into Momo’s purple eyes with his own glazed ones. He nodded very slowly, as though his synapses weren’t firing as quickly as they normally were at the moment. “Good,” Momo got to his feet and urged Echizen to sit down on the side of his bed. He sat next to him, trying to be patient until Ryo’s mind came back from cloud cuckoo land and he was coherent once more. He wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to wait, though. His cock felt like it might explode if he didn’t do something soon.

He put his hands down and unfastened the snap on his jeans, pushing the unforgiving material down off of his hips so that he wasn’t so uncomfortable. His erection was deep red and leaking pre-cum heavily. He considered just taking care of it with his own hand. He would if Echizen didn’t recover soon. Maybe he should take care of it himself, anyway. His inexperienced lover might not be ready to reciprocate just yet. He didn’t want to push Echizen into anything he didn’t want to do.

For his own part, Echizen was finally coming down from the high caused by the mind blowing orgasm he’d just experienced. He lifted his head and looked over at Momo, seeing his lover sitting on the edge of the bed next to him. He also saw that Momo had his pants pushed down, and he saw Momo’s erection for the first time. It looked bigger than his own was. Fascinated, he reached out to touch it. Remembering how Momo had touched him in the bathroom yesterday, he closed his hand over it and gave an experimental stroke. 

Momo nearly came off the bed in shock when Echizen took a hold of his cock. He groaned as his lover’s small hand began to move, tilting his head back and gasping “Uhh! Echizen!” in surprised pleasure.

Echizen was amazed at the feel of Momo’s erection. It was hot, and hard and soft at the same time. The cries he drew from Momo’s throat made him move his fingers faster. He watched Momo’s eyes close as he gasped for breath, and he felt triumphant to be able to cause such a strong reaction in his lover by just moving his hand. Momo’s hand closed over his, and the purple eyed boy began to tutor his lover in the movements that he liked best. Echizen learned quickly, just as he did on the tennis court. It wasn’t long before Momo groaned loudly and came all over Echizen’s hand. The prodigy jerked it back in surprise, and looked with interest at the semen glistening on his fingers.

Momo opened his eyes just as Echizen put his hand up to his mouth and licked the stuff curiously. He gasped at the erotic sight, and if he hadn’t just come he knew he’d have had a massive hard on again in about five seconds. Echizen looked contemplative over the taste, obviously not sure whether he liked it or not. At last he shrugged and proceeded to lick the rest of it off his fingers like a kitten lapping at a saucer of milk. Momo was amazed and aroused in turns, and he watched in fascination as Ryoma finished cleaning his semen off of his slender fingers with a last long lick. 

Momo was half-hard again already, and he wanted nothing more than to just press Echizen down on his bed and spend the rest of the night making love to him. But he’d promised the prodigy that they’d take these lessons slowly, plus they both had a ton of homework to do. He sighed as he closed his eyes and thought of the unsexiest things possible, willing his burgeoning erection to go down again. It finally worked, and he opened his eyes to see Echizen giving a faintly puzzled look. “Sorry,” he said. He stood up and pulled his jeans back up. “We should get going on our homework” he said to Echizen reluctantly.

Echizen nodded, although he really didn’t want to study right now, either. He was discovering that doing these pleasurable things with Momo just made him want to do more of the same. He picked up his pants and bent to put them on, while Momo looked hurriedly away from the sight of Echizen’s bare ass sticking up in the air. They’d never get anything done at this rate. Momo was afraid that he’d have to spend half the night in the bathroom jacking off, just from being aroused by just about everything that Echizen did. Even his breathing was a turn on for Momo. :I can do this: Momo thought desperately. :I can: and he set out with the formidable will that he used on the tennis court to stuff his libido down into the back of his brain. : It might be the longest evening of my life, but I can do this:


	8. Drive Volley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just as Momo and Echizen contemplate sex, something terrible happens...

It was Saturday afternoon, and Echizen walked toward Momo’s apartment from the bus stop. He was looking forward to the next few hours. Momo was going to take him on their first date. His boyfriend knew Echizen very well, and he knew how to please him. He was taking Echizen to a new tennis equipment store that he’d discovered, one that had just about every kind of tennis accessory on the planet. Afterwards they’d go to lunch and maybe see a movie. Echizen couldn’t wait.

His thoughts turned to tonight, and his cheeks heated faintly. He wondered what they’d do – maybe they’d even have sex? Last night Momo hadn’t just given him another blow job, but he’d also wetted one of his fingers and pushed it up into Echizen while he sucked on him. He’d moved the finger gently in and out of him, and it felt so good that Echizen had come almost instantly. Afterwards he’d got Momo off again with his hand. He hadn’t been quite ready to use his mouth on him yet, but he thought that perhaps he might work up the courage tonight to try it. 

He knew now what gay sex entailed. Out of curiosity (and a certain amount of apprehension, since he didn’t know what to expect) he’d gone on-line and looked the subject up. The amount of websites he’d found had bewildered him, but he’d gotten a pretty good idea of what would happen between himself and Momo when they finally did have sex. Some of the pictures he’d seen had been quite erotic. He felt a shiver pass through him just at the thought of Momo doing those things to him. 

He rounded the corner and saw Momo waiting for him outside of his apartment. Unfortunately, he also saw the rest of the former Seigaku Regulars waiting as well, along with Kawamura’s girlfriend Kinoko. Momo gave him an apologetic look as he approached, his heart sinking. He’d wanted time alone with Momo, not to hang out with the people he saw all week at school. “Hoi, Echizen!’ called Fuji, beaming at him as he walked up. “We’ve been waiting for you. We decided to go do something together – maybe go to the mall, or the arcade, or something. We came to pick up Momo, and he said you were coming over so we wouldn’t have to storm your apartment building to get you.” He smiled happily, and Echizen sighed. Tezuka threw him a sharp glance, but said nothing.

Echizen walked over to Momo, who whispered: "Sorry about this. I didn’t invite them here, they just all showed up. I suppose we can’t just tell them to get lost. They are our friends.”

Echizen nodded. He understood, even if he felt disappointed. Momo gave him a small smile at his acquiesance. He brushed Echizen’s fingers with his own lightly. “I’ll make it up to you tomorrow,” he breathed against Echizen’s ear, and the prodigy smiled in return. Momo beamed to see him cheering up.

“They’re so cute together,” Eiji squeaked happily. “Who would have thought that Echizen could be cute?” Oishi smiled down at his lover and ran his hand through the dark red shaggy locks that brushed Eiji’s shoulders. He said nothing, but he agreed with Eiji. Momo and Echizen were very cute together. 

Kaidoh, for his part, hissed in disgust. The sight of that monkey Momo grinning like a fool irritated him. Inui shot him an amused glance, accurately reading the look on Kaidoh’s face. “Come on, let’s go!" Fuji said impatiently. He was only patient on the court, where he could string his opponent along, giving him a bit of hope, before he smashed him utterly. He dragged Tezuka along down the street, much like a small dog will drag its owner at the end of a leash. Tezuka had a look of weary patience on his face, since he was used to this by now. 

The others exchanged glances and followed them, first Oishi and Eiji holding hands, then Kawamura and Kinoko(also holding hands, much to Kawamura’s red faced embarrassment), then Inui and Kaidoh(definitely not holding hands), and last but not least a reluctant Momo and Echizen. At least it’s a beautiful day, a disgruntled Momo thought, looking up at the empty blue sky overhead. Damn that Fuji for getting an idea like this in his head! He looked wistfully down at the face of the boy walking beside him. He’d been looking forward to spending some time with Echizen away from school, homework, and tennis. He could see that Echizen wasn’t happy about this group outing either, and he sighed internally. He wished he could have thought of a graceful way to get out of it.

They all rode the municipal bus to the stop near the mall. The bus was crowded enough that Momo and Echizen were forced to share their seat with Inui and Kaidoh, much to the annoyance of both the Viper and Momo. They spent the time glaring daggers at each other, while Inui retreated into his notebook and Echizen looked out of the window. Oishi and Eiji were crammed in with Tezuka and Fuji, and Kawamura practically had Kinoko sitting on his lap because they were sharing their seat with two large young men who might have been sumo wrestlers. Or maybe football players. They were all relieved when they arrived at their stop and got off the bus.

Fuji’s spirits weren’t much dampened. He flitted away eagerly to the cross walk with Tezuka in tow. The rest of them followed more slowly, stretching muscles cramped by the tight quarters. Kinoko for some odd reason seemed to have taken a liking to Inui, much to his disconcertion. She chattered away at him when she wasn’t talking to Kawamura, while Kaidoh glared daggers at her back. Kawamura was unaware of the black jealousy burning in Kaidoh’s eyes, but Momo saw it and shook his head. “Taka-senpai’d better be careful, or he might just be minus one girlfriend” he whispered to Echizen as they brought up the rear of the group yet again.

At the cross walk, Fuji waited impatiently for the light to change. Once it did, he skipped across it gleefully. Tezuka followed at a more sedate pace, with Oishi and Eiji right behind him. Inui, knowing that his lover must be seething by now, took Kaidoh’s arm and practically dragged him across away from the slower Kawamura and his girlfriend. It was the tail end of the red light as Echizen started across. He realized that Momo wasn’t with him anymore, and glanced behind him. Momo had stopped for a moment to tie his shoe lace, and he waved for Echizen to go on without him. 

Echizen turned away to do so. He had just about made it to the other side, and the others waiting for them could see Momo straighten up and start across the cross walk. At that moment, a speeding car came weaving through the waiting traffic, driven by a man who’d just found out his wife was having an affair with his brother and who’d consumed an entire bottle of whiskey before deciding he was going to drive over and confront his brother about the affair. Momo looked up in shock and horror at the car bearing down on him, and he coiled his muscles to run. 

Kinoko screamed, and the rest of the former Regulars cried out in shock and warning. Echizen whirled around, the world seeming to go into slow motion, just in time to see the car plow into Momo and hurl him away onto the unforgiving concrete of the road. His head struck the cement with an audible crack. The car wavered on for a hundred yards or so, until the shocked sober driver brought it to a halt not far away.

Momo!” Echizen’s scream was loud in the terrible, stunned silence that had fallen. Somehow he got his limbs to move, and ran over to where Momo lay in a tangled sprawl of limbs. There was blood on the surface of the road. “No, no, no,” Echizen heard someone whimper, and it took him a moment to realize that it was he who was making the keening sound. He threw himself to his knees beside Momo, his hands reaching out to touch the white, still face.

“Don’t touch him!” a voice said over his head. He looked up blindly at Inui’s face, still mask-like but with a mouth tightened into a thin line. “Call an ambulance,” Inui said to a white-faced Oishi, who scrabbled after the cell phone in his pocket. The data specialist then gently drew Echizen away from Momo. “It’s best not to touch him right now, Echizen,” Inui said. “He might have damage to his spinal cord or neck. We have to wait for the paramedics.”

Echizen slumped in his arms, a small sob escaping him. He clutched at his green locks as he stared down at his unmoving boyfriend. The only re-assurance that he had was that he could see Momo breathing. He wasn’t dead…he wasn’t dead…Inui put an arm over his shoulders, and for once Kaidoh didn’t complain or stare daggers. He was too busy staring at Momo’s unmoving form, his black eyes wide. Much as he hated Momo, in some weird way they were still friends. His stomach churned with anxiety. Surely he wasn’t going to die?

Eiji clung to Oishi, sobbing, while Oishi hugged him close. He’d gotten through to emergency services, and the ambulance would arrive at any moment. Fuji’s hand was over his mouth, and his eyes were wide and full of distress. Tezuka put a hand around his waist and pulled him up against his side. Kawamura held a sobbing Kinoko close, his big brown eyes shimmering with a sheen of tears. All of them were relieved to see the ambulance come speeding up just then.

The paramedics knelt next to Momo’s still form as they began to check the extent of his injuries. The former Regulars all waited tensely, watching the men work on their friend. At last one of them slid a neck brace onto Momo, and then he was carefully moved onto a back board. He was lifted onto a gurney, and moved into the back of the ambulance. One of the men put an air mask over his face, while another prepared an injection. The doors were closed then, and none of them could see anything else as the ambulance sped away.

The police had arrived at the scene, and the shell shocked group found themselves giving statements and answering questions when they would much rather have been on their way to the hospital. Echizen was barely coherent enough to answer, so Inui took it upon himself to give the police a precise, cool statement with all of the details he’d observed. The men were impressed by his level-headedness and sharp eye, and didn’t bother Echizen again. He slumped down on the curb and buried his head in his hands, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall at any moment.

“momo,” he moaned quietly, rocking back and forth. He felt hands on his shoulders, and two sets of arms hugged him close. He opened his eyes to find the Golden Pair sitting on either side of him. 

“It’ll be all right, Echizen,” Eiji said, sounding close to tears himself. “Yeah, Momo’s tough” Oishi said, trying not to let Echizen see the anxiety in his eyes. “He’ll pull through, I’m sure of it.”

The cops finally let them all leave. The group pooled their money to take a couple of cabs to the hospital, not wanting to endure the bus again. One of the cops told them which hospital their friends had been transported to, and Oishi called the cab company. The taxi drivers weren’t terribly happy with the kids who piled into the backs of their cabs and exhorted them to “hurry, hurry.” Perhaps they thought this was some kind of school prank, but there was a distinct air of disgruntlement about the men by the time they arrived at the hospital.

They hurried into the emergency entrance, leaving Inui to pay off the taxi drivers. The nurse at reception raised her eyebrow at the flock of worried, anxious youths that clustered around her desk. “Takeshi Momoshiro?” she murmured, consulting her computer. “Yes, he was brought in about an hour ago. Multiple fractures, head trauma, some internal bleeding…” she broke off when she saw how white the boy with the large bronze-gold eyes went at her words. He swayed in place, and one of the other boys put out a hand to steady him.

“Will he be all right?” asked a tall brown haired young man with a serious face.

She shook her head. “I can’t say. You’ll have to wait to talk to his doctor. He’s in surgery now…” she broke off as the green-haired boy gasped and his knees threatened to buckle. “Is he all right? Should I fetch a doctor?” she asked in concern.

Two of the boys helped him to a couch in the waiting area and made him sit down. He put his head down between his legs, trying to breathe slowly. “He should be okay,” the serious-faced youth told the nurse. “He’s a close friend of the injured man. He’s really upset, as you can imagine.”

The nurse nodded. She’d seen many, many anxious, upset people in the waiting area over the years. Some wept; others literally tore at their hair. And still others threatened to pass out from shock as the green haired boy was doing. “If you’ll all have seat, I’ll tell the doctor to talk to you when he comes out,” she said kindly to them. Tezuka bowed a little to her in gratitude, and the Regulars all took seats in the waiting area and tried to be patient while they waited for news of their friend’s condition.

 

Days seemed to pass. Inui read some of the old magazines, while Kaidoh watched a televised tennis match on the waiting room t.v. He gave an occasional hiss as he studied the player’s form. Oishi sat on a chair with Eiji’s head resting on his shoulder. The redhead was fast asleep, worn out from emotional distress. Kawamura and Kinoko sat side by side holding hands. Tezuka and Fuji sat on either side of Echizen, keeping an eye on him and lending him support as best they could. It was rather odd to see Fuji playing mother hen, but only a few people realized how much Fuji cared for those he loved. Only Tezuka and Echizen had recognized the rage in Fuji’s eyes during the prefectural tournament six years ago when he’d discovered that the little bastard Mizuki from St. Rudoph’s had deliberately taught Fuji’s younger brother Yuuta a maneuver that was slowly destroying the growing bones in his shoulders, just so that the kid could beat the left-handed players Echizen and Tezuka. Fuji would always try to protect those he cared for, but since he couldn’t protect Momo in this situation he’d watch over Echizen carefully. He stroked Echizen’s shoulders with gentle hands, murmuring quietly to him in soothing tones. Tezuka left most of the comforting up to Fuji, who was much better at it than he was. He lent only his presence as support.

Echizen felt hollow. He barely registered Fuji’s ministrations, as he sat staring unseeingly forward. The image of that car plowing into Momo, and the sickening sound of Momo’s head hitting the pavement kept replaying over and over in his head. He felt as though he were going to shatter into a million pieces at any moment. : Please don’t die, Momo, please don’t die…: he pleaded over and over in his head. The thought of living without that bright smile, the cheerful purple eyes, that good-natured, friendly temperament, was a deadly one that threatened to pitch him into a void of nothingness. He’d never cared for too many people, being as self-contained as he was, but the few who’d actually made an impression on him were the most important things in his life. Momo had always made the largest impression of all. He bit his lip until it bled, wondering desperately how he was supposed to live if Momo died. 

When the tired-looking older man who was Momo’s doctor finally appeared, a sigh of relief went through the waiting room. Oishi gently nudged Eiji awake, and all of them turned anxious, questioning eyes on the man as he came into the waiting room. The doctor, for his part, was surprised to see so many youngsters waiting avidly for news of the boy who’d been brought in a few hours ago. He smiled at them re-assuringly.

“H-How is he?” questioned Eiji anxiously. Oishi’s hand tightened across his shoulders.

The doctor looked at the red-headed boy with the large sapphire eyes, and said: “He’s out of surgery. He had some internal bleeding, which the surgeons stopped. He’s got some broken bones, including four of his ribs, his right forearm, and his right leg. A pin was inserted in his leg to hold the bone together as it heals, because the fracture was severe. There was some blunt head trauma, and he has a concussion. But his skull wasn’t fractured, and there’s no swelling in his brain or spinal cord. Nor was there any damage to his spine. There should be no brain damage or paralysis. It might take him awhile to heal, especially his right leg, but he should be fine.”

The doctor eyebrows went up as a cheer broke out in the waiting room. But he only smiled a little and didn’t try to quiet down the yelling, hugging youngsters. It was nice to be able to deliver some good news for once, and the exuberance unleashed in the normally decorous waiting room could be put up with and understood as a relief of tension. “Thank you, doctor,” Tezuka said, giving the doctor a deep bow. “When may we see him?"

“Not today,” the doctor said. “He’s still in recovery. He’ll be moved to a general room sometime tonight, but after visiting hours. But you may all come back tomorrow during visiting hours and see him.” He left them then, for he had other patients to attend to.

Fuji clapped Echizen on the shoulder as he beamed at him: “See! I knew that Momo-chan was too tough to succumb to something like this!" he caroled happily.

Echizen closed his eyes as relief flowed through him like a balm. Momo wasn’t going to die. He wasn’t a vegetable, or a paraplegic. He would recover. Never, not over a tennis victory or any other event in his short life had Echizen ever felt so much joy. Tears finally slipped down his cheeks, but not tears of grief. They were tears of pure happiness, as he rejoiced that his world hadn’t come to an end after all.


	9. Counter Revolution Serve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Momo's alive, but Echizen's getting a bit frustrated with him being in a cast and all. What is a boy who has just discovered the joys of sex to do?

All of the former Seigaku Regulars were at the hospital as soon as visiting hours started the next day. They were met by Momo’s father. His parents had arrived yesterday evening, and were staying in a hotel near the hospital. The kindly man greeted his son’s friends and led them to the room where Momo had been moved. 

Echizen felt his stomach twist when he saw Momo lying in a hospital bed, his face still pale and his head swathed in bandages. His right leg was in a sling, and he wore a cast from his toes to his upper thigh. A chest brace protected his broken ribs, and he had another cast on his right forearm. His eyes were closed, his black lashes looking even darker against his pale skin. Bruises dappled the skin on the left side of his face. 

His mother was sitting in a chair next to his bed. She rose to her feet and smiled in welcome at the small crowd of boys gathered in the doorway. “Come in” she said softly to them, making a gesture with her hands. “He’s sleeping, but I’m sure he’ll be glad to see you all when he wakes up.”

The Regulars filed into the room. Oishi and Eiji stood at the foot of the bed, with Inui and Kaidoh next to them. Kawamura and Kinoko stood nearby with Momo’s father. Tezuka and Fuji moved to stand at the right side of Momo’s bed, and Echizen came to stand next to them. He wanted desperately to reach out and take Momo’s hand, but since it was the arm with the cast on it he hesitated to do so. “momo,” he murmured, staring at the still face on the pillow sadly.

At the sound of his voice, Momo stirred. His eyelashes fluttered, and after a moment his eyelids lifted. His purple eyes were rather dazed with sleep and pain killers, but they sharpened when he saw Echizen’s face. He smiled a little, as he croaked: “Hey, Echizen” his eyes drifted to Tezuka and Fuji, and then on to the faces of his other friends. “Looks like the gang’s all here,” he said rather hoarsely.

“Well, you know us, Momo-chan. We can’t help doing things in a pack,” Fuji said cheerfully. 

An awkward silence fell for a moment, because nobody really knew what to say. Momo’s father broke it when he said: “We’re going to the cafeteria to get some coffee. Does anyone want anything?”

Everybody shook their heads. “You could bring me a Coke, Dad,” Momo said hopefully. His father smiled and nodded as he took his wife’s arm and they left the room.

“You don’t all have to look so gloomy,” Momo remarked after his parents had gone. “I’m not dead. Just a little bit busted up, is all.”

“Oh, Momo-chan!” Kinoko cried. She hurried over to the left side of the bed and took his hand, something Echizen envied her being able to do. “Yesterday we were all so scared - I mean, when that car hit you…” she sniffled, her eyes glossy with unshed tears.

“It's okay, Kinoko. I’ll be all right.” Momo patted her fingers, while Echizen tried not to feel jealous over his attentions to the distraught girl. 

Kawamura walked over to put his arm around Kinoko’s shoulders. “We know you will, Momo-chan,” he said earnestly. “I’m sure you’ll be up and around in no time.”

“I kinda doubt that, Taka-senpai,” Momo replied ruefully, looking at the cast that covered his right leg. Kawamura looked stricken over perhaps causing Momo to feel bad, but Momo merely smiled at him. “Look at it this way, it could have been much worse,” he pointed out cheerfully. Kawamura looked relieved.

Tezuka happened to glance at Echizen’s profile, and saw how unhappy the boy looked. The large bronze-gold eyes were fixed on Momo’s face, as though trying to will Momo’s attention onto him instead. Tezuka understood that Echizen was feeling vulnerable right now, having not quite recovered from the terror and anxiety of yesterday. The former Buchou decided to give Echizen and Momo some time alone together. He cleared his throat, and everyone looked at him. “I think that I’ll go and get something to drink,” he said.

“But we could have just let Momo-chan’s Dad get us something, Tezuka…” Fuji began, until Tezuka gave him a significant look and moved his eyes to Echizen. Fuji’s eyes opened a bit as he caught on, and he said: “Yes, that’s right. We’ll go and get something to drink,” he ran his icy blue stare over Oishi and Eiji, Inui and Kaidoh, and Kawamura and his girlfriend. He jerked his head towards the door.

Oishi understood. He took Eiji’s arm and steered his boyfriend out the door as Eiji protested “But we just got here…” Inui also realized what was going on, and gave Kaidoh a little push. The Viper gave him an annoyed look, but went out the door without a grumble. Kawamura followed them with Kinoko on his arm, and Fuji said quickly to Echizen “We’ll bring you back something, Echizen,” as he and Tezuka went out the door after the others. 

Momo raised his eyebrows a bit as his friends practically scurried out the door. But then his eyes went to Echizen’s face, and he smiled and patted the left side of the bed beside him. “Come and sit down, Echizen,” he coaxed.

Echizen did as he said, but gingerly, afraid to jar him. Momo ran his good hand down Echizen’s back, stroking the tense muscles in a gentle gesture of affection. “You doing okay, Echizen?” he asked worriedly, studying his boyfriend’s bent head.

Echizen shook his head, as a soft sob escaped him. He couldn’t help himself – he turned and practically threw himself on Momo’s shoulder, crying, forgetting for the moment that he might be hurting the injured boy. There was some pain, but Momo ignored it. He was more concerned with the small figure curled up on him, and the sobs that shook the slender frame. He stroked the dark green hair as he murmured soothing words into Echizen’s ear. “It’s all right. Everything will be fine,” Momo said.

“Momo,” Echizen sniffled. “I was so scared. I thought you were going to die…”

“There, now,” Momo said comfortingly. “I’m sorry you were scared, Koi.” He turned his head carefully because of the throbbing in his skull, and nosed into Echizen’s hair as he tightened his arm around his boyfriend. He inhaled the scent of the soft hair, smelling the shampoo that Ryo used. 

Echizen cried himself out on Momo’s shoulder. Momo simply held him until he was done, occasionally patting his shoulder or stroking his hair. Despite the pain he was in, Momo was happy. He was grateful to be alive, and to be able to hold Echizen. He knew that he was lucky not to have brain damage or to be paralyzed. While it might be awhile before he could play tennis again, at least he’d still be able to eventually. He still had the two most important things in his life. Momo counted his blessings, and kissed Echizen’s hair with all of the love he felt for the boy welling up in him strongly.

Echizen raised his head at the feel of Momo’s lips on his hair. His eyes were red rimmed and his cheeks blotched, but Momo still thought that he was beautiful. Echizen blinked at him, then a small smile blossomed on his face and he leaned forward to kiss Momo on the mouth. Momo reciprocated, although not with his usual vigor. They kissed carefully, and Momo’s good hand came up to cup the back of Echizen’s head tenderly. 

The sound of a throat being cleared broke them apart. Echizen raised his head to see Tezuka standing in the doorway. A slight blush spread over Echizen’s face. The former Buchou smiled a little as he said warningly: “Your parents are on their way back, Momo”.

Echizen scrambled off the bed, making Momo gasp a little as the movement jarred him. “Sorry,” Echizen said apologetically. 

The rest of the former Regulars filed back into the room, so that when Momo’s parents returned they found their son chatting with his friends innocently. They only stayed a short while longer, because a nurse came in to give Momo a shot of pain killer. It made him sleepy, and he was falling into a light doze when they bade him good-bye. Echizen brushed his fingers over the top of Momo’s before he left, and was rewarded with a small, sleepy smile in return. 

 

The next few weeks, Echizen fell into a routine. He went to class, then to practice, and afterwards he rode the bus to the hospital to be with Momo during evening visiting hours. He brought not only his own schoolwork but Momo’s as well. Momo couldn’t do much at first; he slept a lot as his body began to mend. But he was happy to just have Echizen there, and whenever he awoke from a light doze to see Echizen sitting on the side of his bed, he felt that all was right with the world in spite of the pain he was in. Sometimes he’d lay with his eyes half closed, just watching Echizen’s serious profile as he read a textbook or wrote out essays long hand to be typed up later. He was content just to watch his boyfriend, to see his changing expressions and the look of concentration on his face as he thought about whatever piece of homework that he was working on. Sometimes it amazed him that the quiet boy perched on his bed was actually his; that he’d finally gotten his dream. He didn’t think that the sense of satisfaction and happiness would fade for him for a long time to come. 

While Echizen enjoyed the time he spent with Momo, he was also somewhat frustrated. His healthy young body was starting to make demands on him, demands he couldn’t satisfy very well. He and Momo couldn’t even kiss very much, since even when there was no one else in the hospital room there was always the danger that they’d be interrupted by a nurse or doctor. He was learning the art of masturbation, but he didn’t find this very satisfying. Not after being with Momo. He took out his frustrations on the tennis court, much to Tezuka’s satisfaction. Echizen was playing with an intensity and skill that was a step above even his normal high level.

“I feel sorry for the Ochibi,” Fuji remarked to Tezuka one day as they sat on the bench beside the courts, watching Echizen play against Kawamura. Kawamura was steadily losing ground, panting and sweating as Echizen ran him around the court. 

Tezuka glanced at him sideways. “Why do you say that?”

Fuji shrugged. “Because I know what it’s like to go without sex when you’re used to getting it,” he said simply.

Tezuka frowned at him. “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?” he said in annoyance.

Fuji smirked. “No. I never want it to happen again, so I have to keep you on your toes,” he replied slyly.

Tezuka sighed. Seeing that he’d pushed Tezuka’s patience to its limit, Fuji backed off. “Come on,” he said, getting to his feet. 

Tezuka looked up at him in surprise. “What?”

Fuji’s eyes gleamed under his lids. “I’m going to remind you of why you want to keep having sex with me,” he purred, practically licking his lips.

Tezuka’s eyes darkened as he got to his feet. “Sounds good to me,” he said as Fuji took his hand and dragged him off into the locker room and a convenient maintenance closet that they’d used once or twice before.

 

Fortunately for Echizen’s sanity, Momo was finally released from the hospital. All of the Regulars came to act as a kind of honor guard, clustering around the wheelchair as an orderly pushed it out of the hospital entrance and over to Momo’s parent’s car. Momo would have to keep using a wheelchair for at least a few more weeks, since his ribs weren’t quite mended so he couldn’t use crutches. He joked with the others about how he should get a rocket powered wheelchair so that he could run people down in the hallways at school. Tezuka and Oishi helped to lift him into the back seat of his parent’s car, stretching out his right leg along the seat. Momo’s father folded the wheelchair and put it in the trunk.

The Regulars took two cabs again, following Momo’s parents as they drove their son to his apartment. Fortunately the building had an elevator. Momo rode up with his parents, while the Regulars took the stairs and beat them to Momo’s apartment. Momo grinned to see his friends waiting by his apartment door, none of them even breathing hard. His room mate Ran opened the door, and looked happy to see his roomie returned. He’d surprised Momo by coming to the hospital to see him several times; and he’d even seen a sheen of tears in Ran’s eyes the first time he appeared in his hospital room. He hadn’t known that his room mate liked him that much. 

There was a sort of impromptu party in Momo’s tiny apartment for the next few hours. Fuji and Eiji went out and bought pop, chips, pre-made sandwiches, and potato salad. Momo sat propped up in his bed with Echizen sitting next to him, while everybody else perched wherever they could find room. Ran flirted with Inui for a short time, until he became aware of the black stare of the muscular boy sitting at Inui’s feet. He knew a look of death when he saw one, and he quickly backed off, much to Inui’s relief. He’d been his coldest to the blonde haired junior, but it hadn’t seemed to deter him at all. He sighed as Ran got up and went over hurriedly to sit on the floor with Oishi and Eiji, and dropped his hand to gently touch Kaidoh’s hair. The Viper forgave him on the spot, and reached up to link his fingers with his lover’s.

Momo’s parents left to start their drive home. Ran went into the bathroom, and emerged ready for his evening out. He waved to them all as he went out the door. Seeing that Momo looked tired, Tezuka took it upon himself to herd everyone but Echizen out the door. Finally, the two lovers were alone, and Momo sighed in relief. Tired as he was, there wasn’t much that the two of them could do. But he pulled Echizen onto the bed and urged him to rest his head on his good shoulder, and the green haired boy did so willingly. Momo laid his chin on Echizen’s hair and closed his eyes with a contented murmur. Sleep soon overcame him, and he slid into his dreams with the smell of Echizen’s hair in his nose. 

The next day, Momo was greeted at school like a returning king. His fellow students clustered around his wheelchair and slapped his shoulders, ruffled his spiky hair, or (the girls, anyway) kissed his cheek. Momo was a bit taken aback, since he didn’t realize that his personable, cheerful nature had won him dozens of friends among the student body. He grinned, as just about every one of them demanded to sign his cast. Fortunately he had plenty of room, since the cast covered his entire leg, and he was pretty tall. The Regulars reserved a special space for their signatures, and Fuji evilly drew an obscene picture down on Momo’s inner thigh where he couldn’t see it. Kaidoh wrote an insult on his patch, and Eiji signed his name with hearts and flowers. The cast was so covered with writing that it didn’t look white anymore, but rather almost like a blue and black paisley. “It looks like a giant bruise,” Fuji commented at the finished product.

Echizen wished that he didn’t have to go to practice that evening. All he really wanted to do was go back to Momo’s apartment with him. This was first for him; there had never been a time before when Echizen wanted to blow off playing tennis. But he’d learned that there was more to life than tennis. He now understood why Inui and Kaidoh had skipped both class and practice that one time last month. He just wanted to be with Momo, and his feet rather dragged as he walked onto the courts. Tezuka took pity on him and cut practice short, even though their tournament was coming up in a few weeks. Fuji, watching Echizen dart into the locker room hurriedly to change and go catch the bus, laughed his most wicked laugh at his lover. “You’re getting soft in your old age, Tezuka-chan,” he remarked cheekily.

Tezuka merely lifted a haughty eye brow at him. “I don’t know what you mean, Fuji.”

“Sure you don’t.” Fuji surprised his lover by sliding his arms around his waist and resting his head on Tezuka’s broad chest. He rubbed his cheek against Tezuka’s jersey, rather like a kitten. “”You’re so sweet,” he said affectionately.

Tezuka wasn’t sure that he liked being called sweet, especially by Fuji, but he tightened his arm around the prodigy and kissed the top of his head in a rare display of public affection. “Baka,” he replied gently, and Fuji smiled against his chest.

 

Echizen arrived at Momo’s apartment just as Ran was leaving. Momo’s roomie winked at him as he held the door open for him. “Have a good time, darling,” the blonde said cheekily, causing Echizen to blush faintly. 

Momo was sitting up in bed, rubbing at his eyes, having just awakened from a nap. He grinned when he saw his boyfriend walk through the door. “Hey, Echizen. You’re early. How’d you get around that slave driver Tezuka?”

“Actually, he let us go from practice early,” Echizen replied, moving to dump his back pack on Ran’s bed. 

“Oh, really? Is he dying of a brain tumor, or did Fuji finally give him that at-home lobotomy?” 

Echizen shrugged. “I don’t know.” He came over to sit on the side of Momo’s bed, and Momo put out his arm to pull him closer. A comfortable silence fell between them for a few minutes.

Then Momo sighed. “I suppose we’d better get to studying,” he said reluctantly.

Echizen nodded just as reluctantly as he got up to fetch his books and Momo’s as well. He would much rather have done something else, but he could see that Momo was still tired and he didn’t want to push the issue. He sat back down on Momo’s bed and spread the books out. Momo grimaced as he looked at the pile of make up work that he’d have to do, since he hadn’t been able to really keep up with his course work while he was in the hospital. “Geez, look at all this,” he said. Echizen threw him a sympathetic look as he opened his Algebra textbook.

They worked in silence for awhile, but Momo found himself unable to concentrate. Now that his body was mending, certain wants and urges were returning full force. Having Echizen sitting there right next to him was doing his libido no good. He finally gave up trying to study, and set his English book down with a sigh. Echizen looked up questioningly at the sound.

“My brain’s not working,” Momo said, shrugging. He put out his hand. “Come here, Echizen,” he said, his eyes darkening a little.

Echizen instantly put down his text book and did as Momo asked, eagerly sliding across the bed. Momo put his hand up to capture Echizen’s jaw, then kissed him with all of the pent-up intensity within himself. Echizen moaned breathily into the kiss, happily returning it. Momo marveled at how good a kisser Echizen was turning out to be, even with his limited practice at it. When he finally drew away, looking into those big, rather glazed bronze-gold eyes, he felt a surge of emotion run through him. He spoke without thinking, needing to say what he felt. “I love you, Echizen” he said simply, stroking the delicate jaw with his fingertips.

Echizen’s eyes, if possible, got even wider at these words. He stilled, staring down at his boyfriend. The purple eyes looked up into his steadily, and the truth of Momo’s statement shone there in their depths. He took a deep breath, and leaned down to rest his forehead against Momo’s. “I love you, too, Momo,” he replied quietly, with just as much heart felt conviction in his voice.

Momo wanted to jump up and do a dance at Echizen’s words. But since he couldn’t, he settled for wrapping his arm around Echizen’s shoulders and kissing him again. They probably wouldn’t get much more studying done tonight, but right at this moment Momo really didn’t care.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fuji plans to help the lovers, including dispensing his sexual wisdom. Whether they want him to or not...

“Ahh, Echizen!” Momo gasped out these words in amazed pleasure as he grasped the back of Echizen’s head with his left hand. He just could not believe what was happening. One minute he was telling Echizen that he loved him, and Echizen was saying the same in return; the next Echizen had abandoned his mouth and moved downward. Much to Momo’s startlement, his green haired lover moved to push the shorts that Momo was wearing down off of his hips. But the truly astonishing thing happened right after that. Echizen had grasped Momo’s erection in one hand, and then he bent his head and took Momo into his mouth.

Where, thought Momo dimly through the haze of pleasure washing through him, had Echizen learned to do this? For not only was he giving Momo a blow job, it was the most fantastic one that Momo had ever had. Echizen tried all kinds of techniques on him – licking him, swirling his tongue along the length of Momo’s cock, alternating between sucking and moving his head up and down. He even very gently bit him, and Momo was utterly amazed at how good that felt. He moaned loudly, trying very hard not to thrust his hips upward, because his sore ribs spasmed when he did so. But it was a hard fight, when Echizen was reducing him to jelly with his weirdly skilled mouth.

Echizen was proud of himself. He was obviously doing this right, because Momo was gasping and crying out above his head, and his good hand was buried in Echizen’s hair. He hadn’t been sure that putting into practice the things that he’d read about would work, even with the diagrams that had shown him what to do. He could remember his utter embarrassment in the book store when he took the books to the counter to pay for them. The clerk hadn’t turned a hair, but Echizen had been bright red. But he’d been determined. If he were going to do this, he wanted to do it well. So he figured that he’d study up on techniques, just like he did with tennis.

He’d had plenty of time to carefully read the texts while Momo was in the hospital. Putting them into practice wasn’t turning out to be as hard as he’d thought it might be, and he was excited and aroused by the noises Momo was making. He deep throated Momo, swallowing in the back of his throat to bypass his gag reflex, just as the book had suggested. He heard his lover cry out loudly, and the fingers in his hair tightened until the grip was almost painful. He breathed through his nose for a moment, then pulled up and went back to sucking on just the head. 

Momo gave a stuttering cry. “Ec-Echizen! I’m going to come!” he nearly wailed as Echizen’s tongue swirled over the tip of his erection. 

The green-haired boy made sure to take only the head and a bit of Momo’s erection in his mouth as Momo’s hips bucked up under him. He swallowed in preparation, and Momo came with a loud cry into his mouth. He continued to suck lightly until Momo finished spurting, feeling the warm stuff run down his throat. He already knew that he liked the taste, so it was no hardship to swallow it all.

Momo pushed his mouth away, staring at Echizen with wide purple eyes as his breath huffed in and out of his chest. “W-Where did you learn to do that, Echizen?” he gasped. He didn’t think that Echizen was cheating on him, so the mystery of his fellatory skills puzzled him. 

Echizen licked his lips a little to clean the last of Momo’s semen off of them. “I got some books,” he explained, as a faint blush stained his cheeks. 

Momo blinked at him. “Books?” he repeated.

Echizen nodded. “I wanted to know how to do it right, so…” he shrugged.

Momo stared at his lover. The sudden urge to laugh was so great that he had trouble fighting it back. Trust his Echizen to do something so weird! Not that the research hadn’t paid off; it definitely had, and in a spectacular way. And he supposed whatever worked couldn’t be bad. But he had a sudden vision of a solemn-faced Echizen reading a book on how to give a good blow job, and he felt like he was going to explode from keeping in his laughter. His damaged ribs ached. But he didn’t want to laugh in Echizen’s face, especially when he’d gone to all that trouble to learn about something that would please Momo.

“Well, I’m glad you did, Koi” he said when he could speak without giggling. “That was great. You did a wonderful job.”

Echizen smiled, his bronze-gold eyes alight with pleasure. “I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to do it like in the books,” he confessed.

“It was fabulous. Felt really, really good. Now come on up here and let me return the favor,” Momo said, patting the bed next to his shoulder. Echizen crawled up the bed obediently, excitement beginning to spark in his eyes. “Take off your pants,” Momo directed him. “I can’t do it that well one-handed.”

Echizen hurriedly shucked off his pants and boxers, his fingers trembling. Momo made a pleased sound. “Come here,” he directed, and had Echizen very carefully straddle his upper chest. The green haired boy made sure not to jar Momo’s body, not wanting to hurt his mending ribs. Momo sighed happily as he grabbed a hold of Echizen’s tight little ass with his good hand, and lifted his head a bit to pull his lover forward until he could engulf him with his mouth. 

Echizen cried out and gripped Momo’s spiky black hair with his fingers as Momo began to suck on him. The position was somewhat awkward, but at the moment it was the only one that Momo could achieve comfortably. He gave it his all, returning pleasure for pleasure as he enjoyed in turn the sounds he drew from Echizen’s throat. It didn’t last very long, because Echizen had been wildly excited by giving Momo the blow job. He came with a sharp cry into Momo’s mouth, and slumped over his head as he panted and waited to recover from the orgasm. Masturbating never produced such an intense feeling of pleasure.

Momo held onto his hip with his good hand while Echizen came down from the high. He cursed the broken bones that meant that he couldn’t continue with this pleasurable activity indefinitely. His ribs ached like someone was hitting them with a hammer, now that the endorphins produced by his orgasm were dwindling. He knew that he’d have to take some pain killers soon, and they always made him sleepy. He sighed as he felt Echizen stir above him.

Echizen looked down and saw that Momo was rather pale. His mouth was compressed a bit, and it was obvious to Echizen that his lover was in pain. He knew how well Momo could hide it from others, but they’d been friends long enough that he recognized all the signs. He crawled off of Momo with extreme care, and went to fetch him a glass of water and the bottle of pain killers sitting on the small nightstand between the two beds. He held out two of the pills to Momo, who took them without any argument. He knew that Echizen was stubborn, and even if he hadn’t wanted some relief from the pain in his ribs, that his little lover would make him take the pills anyway. He swallowed them and handed the glass of water to Echizen.

The boy set the glass down on the small night stand and crawled back up onto the bed. He snuggled himself against Momo’s shoulder on his left side, resting his head on his skin. Momo closed his eyes, waiting for the pain killers to take effect. He welcomed the feel of Echizen’s head on his shoulder, and the soft sound of his breathing. That sound followed him into sleep as the pain finally ebbed away, and his dreams were all of a certain green-haired boy. It was the best night’s sleep that Momo had ever had.

 

Much as he treasured the things that he and Echizen did together over the next few weeks, Momo was growing impatient. He knew that Echizen was, as well. Both of them wanted to do more than what they could do because of Momo’s still mending body. They still hadn’t had sex together, and Momo was feeling a little frustrated. His ribs were finally almost healed, which meant that he didn’t have to take pain killers every time now. So he didn’t conk out after the first time, and he was happily teaching Echizen that one time didn’t have to be it. Of course there was still homework, and he was finally catching up on that, as well. Everything was great – except for the fact that he really, really wanted to go all the way with Echizen, and he knew that Echizen wanted that too. 

Fuji’s sharp eyes saw that something was bugging Momo, so he set out to find out what that was. It didn’t take the prodigy long to put two and two together and get four. He knew it had something to do with Echizen, although it wasn’t a crisis of the heart. Those two were very close, and the body language between them was unmistakable. This pleased Fuji. In a twisted sort of way, Fuji was a romantic. Just about no one was aware of this, and even Tezuka had glimpsed only a little of this part of his lover. As he kept his strengths hidden on the tennis court, Fuji also kept the deeper parts of his nature hidden. Even Tezuka wasn’t totally aware of just how much the prodigy loved him. The outward Fuji and the inward Fuji were so different in many ways that had anyone been able to see the inner person they might have been astonished. 

Fuji studied the two lovers intensely, trying to discover just what was bothering them. It occurred to him that Echizen didn’t have the look of someone who had been fucked. There was a subtle difference between those who had experienced sexual intercourse and those who hadn’t, and Echizen didn’t have that look yet. So most likely he and Momo hadn’t been able to truly consummate their relationship because of the accident and Momo’s broken bones. He’d thought that they’d had sex before the accident occurred, but apparently not. No wonder Momo was looking kind of frustrated. 

He approached Momo in the library one day, coming up on him in that eerily quiet way that Fuji had. Momo was busy studying, and he had no idea that Fuji was there until a hand settled on his shoulder. He jumped and yelped at the touch, earning him a glare from the librarian. “Fuji!” he hissed, when he saw who’d come up behind him. “Don’t do that!”

“Gomen,” Fuji replied cheerfully, sliding into a chair next to him. “I came to talk to you, Momo.”

“About what?” Momo asked warily, eyeing him suspiciously.

Fuji continued to smile even as he said very quietly: “About your love life, of course.”

Momo felt a sense of apprehension settle over him. “What about it?” he asked reluctantly, knowing that he was going to hate this conversation.

“Not to butt in or anything, but have you and Echizen…’done it’, yet?” Fuji asked with his usual forthrightness.

Momo gulped. “That’s not really any of your business, Fuji,” he pointed out.

Fuji nodded, beaming. “I know. It’s just that I get the feeling that you and the Ochibi haven’t had sex yet, and I wondered if I was right,” he opened his eyes a bit, looking at Momo out of the laser-sharp, ice-blue orbs. 

Momo sighed. He could just deny it, but Fuji would just keep poking until he finally admitted the truth. “No, we haven’t had sex yet,” he said. “We just didn’t get that far before the accident, and afterwards…” he waved at his own ribcage and the cast on his right leg and arm. “It’s pretty hard to have sex when you’re practically immobile.”

“Hmmm…” Fuji said, tapping his lips with his finger thoughtfully. “That’s true. But there is at least one position that wouldn’t be too taxing.”

Momo’s eyes lit up hopefully. While he had more sexual experience than Echizen (which wasn’t hard), he still didn’t have the wide diversity of knowledge that Fuji had on the subject. “Really? Which one?”

Fuji smiled slyly. “I believe that it was called ‘Hector’s Horse’ in Europe,” he said.

“Huh?”

Fuji’s grin widened. “Because there’s riding involved,” he explained.

Momo gaped at him. Then a faint blush rose in his cheeks as he realized what Fuji was getting at. “Oh,” he said. “I never thought of that.”

“That’s all right,” Fuji replied. “But I assure you that it’s quite a pleasurable position,” his eyes held a sly look that made Momo want to groan. He didn’t want to think about Fuji’s sex life with Tezuka. He squirmed in embarrassment in his wheelchair, making Fuji’s eyes dance under their lids with an unholy light.

“Do you have any lube?” Fuji continued, amusing himself by giving Momo advice, as well as making him uncomfortable at the same time. This situation pleased both sides of his nature.

Momo wanted to smack his own forehead. “No,” he groaned. “I was going to get some on the day we went to the mall, but…” he waved at his leg.

Fuji nodded. "I wouldn’t suggest using an alternative for the Ochibi’s first time,” he said. “So I’ll go and pick some things up for you and drop them at your apartment tonight. Maybe I’ll even have a little talk with Echizen. He is going to be the uke, after all. I want him to know what to expect.”

Momo was horrified at the thought of Fuji having a little heart-to-heart with Echizen about sex. “Uhh...” he said, wondering how he could talk Fuji out of giving sexual advice to Echizen.

Fuji waved a hand at him. “Now,now, no need to thank me,” he said cheerfully. “I’m always glad to help out my friends.” He got to his feet before Momo could protest, and said happily “I’ll see you tonight, Momo-chan.” He strolled away, taking a certain sadistic pleasure in the fact that they were in the library, and so Momo couldn’t yell after him to come back. Fuji whistled as he walked out of the library, thoroughly enjoying himself. The look on Momo’s face when he’d said that he was going to have a talk with Echizen had been priceless. Not that he didn’t intend to actually have that talk. He was always happy to dispense advice, especially where sex was concerned. Besides tennis, it was his favorite preoccupation.

 

Momo sweated through the rest of the day at school. He could see Echizen giving him puzzled, questioning looks, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell him of the horror that awaited them tonight. It wasn’t that he wasn’t looking forward to finally having sex with Echizen; but the addition of Fuji into the mix made terror quiver in the depths of Momo’s soul. Fuji was both sadistic and unpredictable, the Gods only knew what would happen when he arrived at Momo’s apartment. Bringing gifts of lube and sexual advice, no less! Momo cringed at the images that kept going through his head, and wished that there were any way to call this off. Sure, he desperately wanted to finally have sex with his lover. But he wasn’t sure that the price that they’d have to pay to actually do so was worth it. Unfortunately he knew that there was no way to stop Fuji once he’d got a notion into his head, so the best thing to do was just to get it over with. 

When his last class let out, he rolled his wheelchair out to the bus stop to catch the bus to his apartment. Echizen walked beside him, although he’d be peeling off to go to practice in a moment. “Momo, is there something wrong?” Echizen asked, looking down at his lover in concern. Momo had been acting weird all day.

“No, no, there’s nothing wrong,” Momo assured him, while thinking to himself: that a good lobotomy or a move to another country wouldn’t fix:

Echizen’s brows knit at the strange look of near panic that flashed across Momo’s face. “Are you sure?”

“Uh-huh. Listen, have a good time at practice, and I’ll see you tonight. And if Fuji says anything to you…” Momo trailed off and shook his head. 

“About what?” Echizen asked curiously.

“Never mind. Never mind,” Momo said desperately. 

“Okay. I’ve got to go,” Echizen said uncertainly. He was puzzled by Momo’s odd behavior. And what did Fuji have to do with it? He wondered if he could get the prodigy to tell him what he’d said or done to weird Momo out like this. He'd ask him at practice. He leaned over and kissed Momo briefly, and the purple-eyed boy came out of his funk for a moment and smiled up at him. “I’ll see you later, Momo,” Echizen said before leaving him at the bus stop. He loped off to the courts, determined to discover just what was going on.


	11. Drive A

When Echizen came out onto the courts, he immediately walked over to where Fuji was standing talking to Tezuka. They were discussing the tournament, taking about strategies since Momo wasn’t able to play. Inui would be taking his place, and his style of playing was much different than Momo’s. For one thing, they couldn’t put Inui on a doubles team because he didn’t have enough practice at it. While he and Kaidoh actually played quite well together, their styles didn’t compliment one another as Kaidoh and Momo’s did.

Echizen tried to be patient as he waited for them to finish their discussion. Fuji became aware of the weight of Echizen’s stare, and turned his head to look at the Ochibi. He could see that Echizen wanted to say something to him, and he suspected what it was that he wanted to talk to him about. A bright blue slit appeared under each of his lids, and his smile was cheerful as he turned away from Tezuka and spoke to Echizen instead.

“Is there something you wanted, Echizen?” he said mock-politely. Tezuka stared at the back of his lover’s head, wondering what this was all about. Fuji was up to something, he could see that quite clearly.

Echizen replied forthrightly, “I want to know if you said anything to Momo, Fuji-senpai” he said evenly. ‘He’s been acting kinda strange since before lunch, and when I asked him if anything was wrong he said that there was nothing. But then he started to say something about if you said anything to me at practice…I think he meant to tell me to ignore what you said, but he didn’t finish the sentence, So I was wondering if you said anything to him to freak him out.”

Fuji tilted his head to the side in the quasi-innocent way that he had, that was a bad sign for him. “Oh, I’m sure that I didn’t upset Momo-chan, Echizen” he said in a tone of voice that implied the opposite. “All I did was give him some help for the little problem that you two are having, that’s all. Some advice.”

Echizen’s brows drew together in uneasy puzzlement. “Problem?” he asked. "What problem?”

Fuji’s smile widened, as did his eyes. Echizen felt his stomach heading for his toes. “Oh, the fact that you and Momo haven’t been able to have sex yet because of his casts. I advised him on a position that you’d be able to use, despite his limited mobility. He was grateful, really. I’m sure that that didn’t upset him,” his eyes gleamed under his lids like lasers.

Tezuka groaned and put his head in his hand. Echizen’s eyes were wide. “You…told Momo a way for us to have sex together?” he clarified tonelessly.

Fuji nodded happily. He wondered if Echizen was going to hit the roof now. He was looking forward to the resulting brouhaha. But he was sorely disappointed, because Echizen blinked several times, and then shocked Fuji by smiling a little and saying: “Arigatou, Fuji-senpai.”

Fuji’s eyes widened as Tezuka’s brows shot up behind him. Both men stared at their teammate as though he’d just grown a new head. Echizen was amused to have shocked Fuji for once, instead of the other way around. But he really was grateful to Fuji, all the same. He wanted desperately to finally have sex with Momo, and he’d take any advice or assistance that he could get. Even if it was from the twisted Fuji.

“Uhh…” Fuji had actually been rendered almost speechless for once. 

Echizen frowned in thought. “You’re right that that wouldn’t upset Momo. So what DID, anyway?”

Fuji collected himself. “Well, I said that I’d drop by tonight and bring over some things that you’ll need, plus I told him that I’d be having a little talk with you. Give you the benefit of my superior knowledge,” Fuji chuckled; sure that he had Echizen now. After all, Momo had become almost frantic when he’d told him this. And he heard Tezuka muttering softly to himself behind him, a speech with several curse words in it.

But Echizen surprised him again. “Okay,” he said calmly. “I wouldn’t mind talking to someone who knows more about this than I do, Fuji-senpai. I mean, I’ve read some books but it’s not the same thing…”

Fuji’s mouth hung open. Not just at the fact that he’d failed to shock Echizen yet again, or that the Ochibi actually WANTED his advice. The mention of ‘books’ made images run through his head that took him aback. Echizen had been studying sex manuals? Like Momo, Fuji had a sudden vision of a serious faced Echizen reading texts on how to have sex, running the positions through his head like a new tennis move. This was too much for him. Unlike Momo, he didn’t care about hurting Echizen’s feelings. He burst out laughing, nearly howling as he bent over and clutched at his own ribcage.

Tezuka’s lips were twitching a bit, as well, but he managed to retain a straight face, even when Echizen wrinkled his brow in puzzlement as he stared at Fuji’s bent over form. Clearly he wondered what Fuji found to be so funny. “Ignore him, Echizen,” Tezuka said quietly. “It’s the only way.”

“Hey!” Fuji protested nearly breathlessly, even as giggles continued to escape him. 

“I want you to practice against Kaidoh today, Echizen,” Tezuka continued as though Fuji hadn’t spoken. Echizen nodded and walked off to where Kaidoh was standing beside Inui, waiting impatiently and scowling. 

“I’ll see you tonight, Echizen!” Fuji sing-songed when he could speak again. Echizen merely raised his racket into the air in acknowledgement of Fuji’s words, and continued over to Kaidoh without stopping.

“Fuji,” Tezuka said grimly. 

The prodigy turned to his lover hopefully. He was hoping to have caused chaos SOMEWHERE, since his plan to disconcert Echizen had come to nothing. Tezuka gave him a stern look through his lenses. “You are impossible, Fuji,” he said in exasperated affection.

Fuji beamed at him. “I know,” he replied happily. Tezuka shook his head, but he’d known what Fuji was like for years. If he hadn’t been able to handle it, they wouldn’t be lovers. He raised his hand and cupped the side of Fuji’s cheek, surprising him a little. “You’re a little monster, but you’re MY monster,” he said, and Fuji’s smile this time was genuine and dazzling as he tilted his head into Tezuka’s hand caressingly.

 

Momo was happy when Echizen arrived at his apartment. He had decided that he’d better warn his lover about Fuji’s intentions, since he didn’t want Echizen to get a nasty surprise when Fuji came knocking on the door. “Hey, Echizen” he said as the boy dropped his backpack on Ran’s bed.

“Hey,” Echizen replied, walking over to bend a bit and kiss Momo on the lips. This was the best form of greeting that Momo had ever received, and he cupped the back of Echizen’s head and didn’t let him withdraw from the kiss until he was nearly breathless. Color stained his fair cheeks as he raised his head, and his bronze-gold eyes were gleaming with a look that made Momo curse the wretched cast on his leg even more than usual.

“So, how was practice?” Momo asked, wondering how to work up to the subject of Fuji. 

Echizen sat down on the side of the bed next to him. “It was okay. I had to practice with Kaidoh, and he was grumpy today. He’s catching a cold, which he just about never gets. Inui says that he’s nearly impossible to live with when he gets sick. Glad I don’t have to live with him.”

“Amen to that,” Momo said fervently.

“Oh, and Fuji said that he’s coming over here tonight.” Echizen said carelessly. 

Momo’s jaw dropped. “He told you that?!”

Echizen blinked. “Sure. Why wouldn’t he?” he asked curiously.

“B-But…Did he tell you all of the reasons why he’s coming over here?”

The boy nodded. “Yes. He said he’s going to bring over some things we can use, and that he’s going to have a talk with me about sex.”

Momo was spluttering. Not only couldn’t he believe that Fuji had actually told Echizen this, but his green haired lover wasn’t turning a hair over it. “This doesn’t bother you?” he said.

Echizen’s brows drew together. ‘Why would it?” he asked, sounding puzzled.

Momo waved a hand in the air desperately. “Well, I mean…its Fuji!” he howled.

Echizen shrugged. “So? Fuji-senpai knows a lot about sex, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, but…I mean…its Fuji!” Momo repeated, wanting to throw his hands in the air in exasperation over Echizen’s denseness. His lover just didn’t seem to get how twisted Fuji was. Who knew how the prodigy might screw with Echizen’s head once he had him in his clutches?

Echizen scratched at his nose a bit. Momo sure was acting weird over this whole thing. He knew how warped Fuji was, but he didn’t think that the prodigy would give him bad advice. There were only two things that Fuji took seriously, and those things were tennis and sex. And not necessarily in that order. Just as Fuji would never give anyone bad advice about playing tennis, he wouldn’t give bad advice about sex, either. He wondered how he could make Momo understand that.

“I trust Fuji-senpai” he said quietly but firmly. Momo’s purple eyes widened. “Why?!” he said in disbelief.

“Because he’s not out to screw us up. He was the one who helped you make me jealous in the first place…” Momo started to protest, but he held up a hand. “Yes, I know he was doing it for himself, too, but he still did it. And he was also the one who told me that you were kissing each other because you were trying to make one of the former Regulars jealous. He could have told me outright that it was me, but that’s not the way Fuji works. Moreover, he gave you good advice about how we could go about having sex, didn’t he? He didn’t have to do that. He could have just said nothing or tortured you about the fact that we haven’t been able to actually have sex yet. So I trust him to give me good advice, because despite the fact that he can be downright evil, Fuji-senpai’s basically a decent person.”

Momo shut his mouth. Echizen had several good points, ones that he’d never considered before. Fuji might have found another way to get Tezuka’s attention, but he’d helped Momo with his problem as well as his own. And by telling Echizen that the kiss they’d shared had been to make someone jealous, he’d started Echizen thinking so that he figured out that it must be him. Who knew how long the situation would have dragged out if he hadn’t? It might have taken Echizen weeks, even months, to realize what had been going on. And Momo wasn’t sure that after that kiss with Fuji that he could have worked up the courage to confess to Echizen about what it had all been for. He’d felt too guilty about kissing Fuji. He hadn’t even been able to look Echizen in the eye afterwards. And Fuji had given him a good idea in the library, although he hadn’t had to. He could have just kept his mouth shut and enjoyed their frustration. In fact, that was something he would expect Fuji to do with glee. That he hadn’t said something about Fuji’s personality.

“Okay,” he conceded slowly. “You’re right. I guess I was just worried because Fuji can be so twisted that I wouldn’t put just about anything past him. He sure likes to play games.”

Echizen nodded. “I know. But there are some things that Fuji-senpai doesn’t play games about, and sex is one of them. Tennis is the other. Anything else…" He shrugged eloquently.

Momo grimaced suddenly. “I’m just now realizing that if Fuji’s solving all of our problems, that means that we’re going to owe him. Big time.”

Echizen shook his head. I don’t think that he sees it that way, Momo. He just likes to give advice.”

“I sure hope you’re right. The thought of being in Fuji’s debt scares me senseless.”

Echizen’s bronze-gold eyes began to darken. “Look at it this way, Momo,” he murmured, beginning to lean towards him as he put out a hand to rest of his chest. “Would it be so bad to owe him for helping us have sex?” he began to rub his hand over Momo’s chest, and the purple eyed boy’s breath rushed out of him in a near gasp as he instantly became hard under the pair of shorts he was wearing. “No, no it wouldn’t be bad at all” he agreed throatily, as he reached out to pull Echizen’s head down to his for another deep, tonguing kiss. :I’d owe the Devil himself if it means that I get to have sex with Echizen: he thought as he gripped the back of Echizen’s head and feasted on his mouth.

 

The two boys couldn’t indulge in much more than some heavy petting, because the thought of Fuji walking in on them doing anything more intimate was mortifying. And it would be just like Fuji to walk in without bothering to knock, amusing himself by embarrassing and disconcerting his friends. So they tried to settle down to their homework while they waited for Fuji to show up, but both of them were a little on edge.

The knock on the door forty five minutes later made Momo jump. Echizen got up to answer it, and found a beaming Fuji standing on the other side. The apparent reason for his good manners was standing right behind him. Tezuka looked rather grim, but he nodded quietly to Echizen in greeting as Fuji flowed into the apartment holding a large brown bag in his hands. He danced over to the bed, grinning and holding this bag aloft like a trophy. “Momo-chan!” he cried happily. “Just see all of the useful things that I’ve brought you!”

Momo’s heart dropped into his stomach at the size of the bag. Fuji had said he was going to bring some lube over. But that bag was way too big to just contain lubricant, and he felt a dreadful sense of apprehension rush through him as Fuji upended the bag on Ran’s bed and a pile of things fell onto the bedspread. He stared at the little heap in horror - he saw a pair of handcuffs, some silk scarves, a large pink vibrator, at least three tubes of flavored edible lubricant, some large beads on a string that it took him a second to recognize the purpose of, a prostate stimulator (also bright pink), a leather eye mask, and a paddle. A paddle, for the Gods sake! And that was just the stuff he recognized. He felt chilled to the bone as he saw Echizen walk over to the bed to look at all of the unusual things lying there. 

Fuji was happily rocking on his toes; his eyes scrunched shut in merriment. He knew that Momo was horrified by the little collection of things that he’d brought over, but in his opinion this was just the basic kit that every pair of lovers should have. He heard Tezuka sigh tiredly behind him, and his grin widened. His lover had nothing to say, since the collection of sex toys that they had (and used frequently) was much larger than this one. He saw Echizen reach down and pick up a tiny silver clamp with a weight dangling from it. “What’s this for?” he asked curiously. Momo groaned and slapped his good hand over his eyes.

“That’s a nipple clamp,” Fuji replied promptly. Echizen blinked for a second as he took in this bit of information. Then he frowned. “You actually put this on your nipple?” he asked incredulously.

Fuji nodded. “Why?” 

“Some people,” (read, me, Fuji thought with a mental smirk) “like a little pain along with their pleasure,” he replied aloud.

Momo was making little sounds in the back of his throat now. Echizen gave him a puzzled glance before he shook his head and put the clamp back on top of the pile. “I don’t think I’d like that,” he said decisively.

Fuji shrugged. To each their own…he saw that Echizen had picked something else up, a small collection of leather straps and buckles. “And this?” he asked Fuji, turning it over in his hands.

Fuji smiled slyly. "‘That’s what’s known as a cock ring,” he said. Momo dropped his hand away from his eyes and gaped at the thing Echizen was holding in his hands, while Tezuka decided that he found the ceiling fascinating for some reason.

“Cock ring” Echizen repeated. “So you wear it on your…” he gestured rather than saying aloud what he meant.

“That’s right. It keeps you from coming.” Fuji said cheerfully.

Again Echizen was clearly puzzled. “Why would you want to stop yourself from coming?” he asked.

“It’s to delay your orgasm, actually. You take it off after awhile, and you come harder than you normally would. It’s quite pleasant,” Fuji explained.

Echizen looked rather interested in this explanation. Momo could see that he was considering giving the device a try sometime soon. Frankly, he didn’t mind the thought as he had the nasty-looking nipple clamps. Momo wasn’t into pain, or seeing others in pain. He just wished that Echizen would stop asking Fuji about this stuff. The explanations, while clear and concise, were also totally embarrassing because they were coming from Fuji. Fuji looked at Momo’s red face and decided that he’d had enough fun torturing him for one day. “Come on, Echizen,” he said. “I’m sure that Momo-chan can explain to you later about the rest of this stuff. For now we should have that little talk,” and he dragged Echizen off out into the hallway, where he was sure to shock and horrify the neighbors if they heard any of this conversation.

Tezuka and Momo eyed each other. Tezuka shrugged as if to say ‘what can I do?’ Momo understood. If (heaven forbid) Fuji had been his lover, he was absolutely sure that he couldn’t control him. Fuji was a force of nature, as inevitable and terrifying as a hurricane. “So” Momo said, trying to lift the tension a bit. “What should we talk about until they come back?”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Momo and Echizen finally get to have sex.

Tezuka went and sat gingerly on the edge of Ran’s bed, choosing a spot away from the little heap of sex toys still lying on the bedspread. Momo watched him, thinking how odd it was that he was going to make light conversation with his former Buchou while said ex-Captain’s lover gave sex advice to HIS lover out on the hallway. This was just too freaky. What did you talk about in a situation like this? 

Suddenly, he found himself opening his mouth and asking: “How did you and Fuji-senpai end up together, Tezuka-senpai?” he found that he was really curious to hear the answer to this question, since Tezuka and Fuji seemed such opposite personalities.

Tezuka was silent for a moment. Then he sighed. “It was actually Fuji’s doing, as you can imagine. We’d been friends for a long time, ever since elementary school. Fuji’s tough, but he’s always been small. I saw him surrounded by a crowd of bullies one day, and since I was bigger and stronger looking, when I appeared and threatened them, they took off. We were friends ever after, partially because I think that Fuji was used to protecting others, like his younger brother Yuuta, but not having someone protect him. I think that he’d always wanted someone to stand up for him, but he was such an odd child that he had no friends. In my own way, I was as alone as he, since I was too serious and I didn’t have many social skills. 

Eventually we both earned more friends than each other, but we always stayed close. If nothing else, we had the bond of both being good at tennis. And our personalities actually compliment each other. I’m too serious and controlled. And Fuji’s never serious about anything but tennis, and as for being controlled…He makes me laugh, even when I’m mad at him. I don’t know how he does that. I know a lot of people wondered how we could be such good friends, but it was never that difficult.” One corner of Tezuka’s lips lifted in a small smile. Momo was fascinated. This was probably the most that Tezuka had ever said about anything personal. He wasn’t usually so open about his private life.

“What I didn’t know, all through high school, was that Fuji knew that he was gay and that he had begun to lust after his best friend. He never even gave a sign that he wanted me to be anything more than his friend. I knew he was gay, of course, because his love life was the stuff of legend around school. There was even a rumor that he’d given the vice principal a blow job in his office to improve his grades.”

Momo gaped at him. “You’re kidding!”

Tezuka shook his head. "I wish I was. I’m afraid that I believe that rumor to be true. Fuji was acting really wild, much more than usual. He was becoming reckless. I started to get concerned, but he wouldn’t talk to me about this. What I didn’t understand at the time was that he was jealous of my girlfriend. I’m surprised he didn’t do something to her. But he took out his jealousy on himself, instead. He started to come to school with rope burns on his wrists, and he had to skip practice one day because his ass was bruised and bloody. I made him show it to me when he couldn’t sit down - it was covered in welts and hand prints. But it was when he came to school one day with bruises from someone’s hands around his throat that I confronted him. I was scared that he’d really go too far and get hurt or killed.

He got very angry at me when I tried to force him to tell me why he was doing this. I’d never seen Fuji angry before, not like this. He raged at me. There was something hysterical in his anger - it frightened me. So I hit him.”

“You hit Fuji-senpai?” Momo asked incredulously.

Tezuka nodded gravely. “I hit him harder than I meant to, but I was upset. There was blood at the corner of his mouth. But the oddest thing happened - he calmed down. He licked at the blood on his mouth, and then his eyes opened wide and he threw himself on me. Before I knew it, my best friend was kissing me. I was shocked, but I was more shocked to find that I liked it. We were in the locker room at the time, but it was empty because everyone had gone home after practice. The next thing I knew…” he trailed off and a faint blush spread over his cheekbones.

“You guys did it in the locker room?”

Tezuka nodded. “And so began our long career of having sex in some very public places, I’m afraid. Fuji just loves the danger of maybe getting caught, and I…” he sighed. "I’m afraid that I can’t resist him” he said.

Momo was finding this conversation to be rather surreal. “So what happened with your girlfriend?” he asked, to try to get off the subject of Tezuka and Fuji having sex in the locker room. The images that brought up were a little scary…

Tezuka shook his head. “Nothing, at first. I wanted that little interlude between Fuji and I to be the only time. I was more than a little disturbed, as you can imagine, that I’d had sex with my best friend. And that I’d enjoyed it thoroughly”

Whoa!” Momo said, putting up his good hand to forestall any more talk of how good Tezuka and Fuji’s love life was.

Tezuka smiled at the look on Momo’s face. “Fuji was not happy with me, not at all” he continued quietly. “He’d finally gotten what he wanted, and I was treating it as though it were a mistake. One not to be repeated. He set out to seduce me, to make me admit that I’d enjoyed it. There’s nothing more frightening than Fuji when he’s got his mind set on something. There’s a single mindedness to him once he’s set on a course that can be terrifying in the extreme. Every time I turned around, he’d be trying something new. Everything from dressing sexy to eating things like popsicles in front of me…” Momo had a sudden image of Fuji deep threading a Popsicle, and wanted to groan in horror at the thought.

“I’m stubborn, but Fuji’s way more stubborn than I am. He started to wear me down. I finally broke up with my girlfriend, because I didn’t think that it was fair to her that I was beginning to want my best friend more than I wanted her. Fuji was triumphant, of course, but he was also furious when I told him that just because I’d broken up with her didn’t mean that I wanted to be his lover. I guess I wanted to frustrate and annoy him in return after all that he’d put me through. I’m afraid that that period of celibacy didn’t last very long – I wanted him very badly. But it did last long enough to teach Fuji that I don’t dance to his tune like a marionette. We became lovers, and I can’t say that I’ve ever regretted it, even if he does drive me crazy most of the time.”

Momo looked at his face. When Fuji had told him that he and Tezuka were lovers, he’d kind of assumed that the relationship was purely physical. Maybe because he couldn’t imagine having anything else with Fuji. But now he was beginning to realize that Tezuka actually loved Fuji. And from Tezuka’s description of Fuji’s behavior in high school, it appeared that Fuji (in his own, twisted sort of way, of course) loved Tezuka in return. In a warped way, it was kinda sweet.

“So you lived happily ever after, eh?” Momo said.

Tezuka grimaced. “With Fuji, there’s no such thing” he replied dryly.

Momo laughed. He would have said something else, but just then the apartment door opened and Echizen re-entered the apartment, followed by a smirking Fuji. Echizen had a thoughtful look on his face, which made Momo begin to sweat. What had Fuji said to him out there? Had it been a mistake to trust him? Not that there was any way that they could have stopped him, of course. He’d just have to hope for the best.

“All done” Fuji said happily, patting Echizen’s shoulder. “What did you two do while we talked?” he asked Tezuka.

“We talked about you, of course” his lover replied calmly.

“Something good, I hope?”

Momo asked how we got together. I was just telling him the story.”

“Ahh” Fuji’s eyes scrunched up. “Did you tell him about the locker room?”

“Yes, but not in detail. And you’re not going to, either” Tezuka got to his feet and walked over to his lover. He grasped him by the elbow. ‘We’re going to go now, because I’m sure that Momo and Echizen want to be alone together.” He began to herd Fuji towards the door. The prodigy went amiably enough, smiling. Momo clearly heard him say: “Perhaps we should do a re-enactment of the locker room when we get home, Tezuka?” he shuddered and wished that he hadn’t heard that as he watched the pair of lovers walk out the door with a last farewell to them.

“Phew” Momo remarked. "I’m sure glad that they’re gone. You okay, Echizen?” he asked his boyfriend anxiously.

Echizen nodded. “Sure. Fuji-senpai gave me some good advice. I think I can do this, now.”

Momo felt his mouth go dry as Echizen began to remove his clothing. His matter-of-fact stripping was more erotic than a strip tease, and he fastened his purple eyes on the pale porcelain skin and the tight, rolling muscles revealed as more and more of Echizen’s clothing fell away under his fingers. He was drooling already in anticipation and lust, and he licked his lips as Echizen slipped out of his pants and underwear. He couldn’t believe that they were finally going to have sex together. His eyes were riveted to that small, tight ass as Echizen turned around and went over to retrieve one of the bottles of flavored lube that Fuji had brought over.

The green haired boy returned to his lover’s side holding the bottle in his hand. “Fuji-senpai said that we should get in a lot of foreplay since this is my first time” he told Momo. Momo nodded happily. “Sounds great to me” he said.

At his urging, Echizen crawled onto the bed and straddled his chest. That way, Momo could touch every part of him without stretching. He began to slide his hand over his little lover’s chest, using his thumb to flick at his pale pink nipples. The prodigy made a small sound of desire in the back of his throat, and leaned forward to kiss Momo. Their tongues tangled as Momo ran his hand down to Echizen’s hips and began to caress his thighs and ass. Ryoma sighed into the kiss as the feel of his hand, and eagerly thrust his tongue into Momo’s mouth. When they finally parted so that they could breathe properly, Momo raised his hand and put two of his fingers against Echizen’s lips. “Suck them” he directed his little lover.

The green haired boy complied, laving the fingers with his tongue as he did so. Momo groaned at the sight and feel of this, his cock already twitching in his shorts. He’d give Ryo all the foreplay that he needed, even if it killed him. And it just might, he thought wildly as he removed his fingers from Echizen’s sweet mouth and reached down to slip one of the saliva coated fingers between his buttocks. He stroked his lover’s small opening with his fingertip, and Echizen moaned at the feel. He splayed his fingers across Momo’s chest and began to caress his lover in turn as the finger pushed inside of him. His fingertips pinched Momo’s nipples, and the purple eyed boy gasped and thrust his finger deeper inside of his lover.

Suddenly, Echizen stiffened over Momo and cried out loudly. Momo had found his prostate, and he grinned proudly at the look of ecstasy on Echizen’s face as his slender hips jerked and his head flew back. Momo!” he cried. “W-What was that?”

“Something that’ll make you feel really good” Momo replied, even as he ran his fingertip over the same spot again. Echizen mewled desperately, his fingers scrabbling at Momo’s chest. When Momo prodded the same spot a third time, Echizen’s arms gave out on him and he fell forward over Momo’s head, panting wildly. Momo took advantage of this and raised his head a bit to begin licking at Ryoma’s nipples.

“Momo!” Echizen was already losing his mind as Momo slipped a second finger into him at the same time that he began to suck strongly on his left nipple. His whole body trembled with pleasure as Momo began to drive him towards the edge.

Deciding to finish blowing his little lover’s mind, Momo lifted his mouth from Echizen’s nipple and said: “Turn around, Echizen.”

Ryo blinked down at his lover in dazed puzzlement. “What?”

Momo made a twisting motion with the fingers that he’d withdrawn from his ass. “Turn around.” He obediently did so, and Momo use his good hand to begin to caress and stroke the cheeks of his ass. It felt good, and Echizen lowered himself a bit so that he could kiss Momo’s stomach lazily. He was just considering freeing the erection that he could see bulging under Momo’s shorts when he felt strong fingers part his buttocks, and then he felt the shocking sensation of Momo’s tongue running over his asshole. 

Momo began to lick him in a leisurely fashion as Echizen cried out and thrust his hips frantically back at Momo. Remembering the edible lube, Momo twisted a bit to snag the bottle. It was chocolate, his favorite. He smeared it over the sensitive skin of his lover’s anus, and then proceeded to lick every last bit of it off the tender puckered tissue. All the while, he enjoyed the loud, frantic cries he drew from Echizen’s throat. But the sound stopped suddenly as Ryo somehow found the strength to put out his hands and push Momo’s shorts off of his erection. He stretched his head forward, and Momo groaned against him as Echizen’s hot mouth engulfed him. He pushed his tongue into Echizen even as his little lover began to suck on him.

They feasted on each other for what seemed like hours. Momo could feel himself getting closer and closer to the edge. But he wanted to come inside of Echizen, and he finally gave a last lick at his boyfriend’s twitching asshole and smacked him on the ass lightly. “Come back up here, Echizen” he said, and the boy abandoned his erection and turned around. Momo held up the bottle of lube. "You ready, or do you need more foreplay?” he asked gravely.

Echizen’s bronze-gold eyes lit up. He took the bottle from Momo’s hands and poured some of the flavored lube over his fingers. He lifted himself a bit and as Momo watched in astonishment, he thrust one of his own lubed up fingers into his own body and began to finger himself. It was the hottest sight that Momo had ever seen, although he was a bit astonished as well. “Did Fuji-senpai tell you to do that?" He asked Echizen hoarsely.

The prodigy nodded, even as he added a second finger to his preparations. :I gotta find a good way to thank him: Momo thought wildly.

Echizen was up to three fingers, and he bit his lip at the feel as he thrust them repeatedly into his body and scissored his fingers. Momo was panting and groaning, his eyes fastened on those fingers as they disappeared into that tight little ass. He was going to come just from watching this! It was a voyeur’s wet dream come true. At last Echizen seemed to feel that he’d stretched himself enough. He removed his fingers, and then nearly sent Momo through the roof when he licked at the edible lube. The purple eyed boy groaned loudly and lifted his hips. Gods, it was just too much!

Echizen seemed to sense how far gone Momo was. He slid down his torso and reached behind himself to take Momo’s cock in hand. He poured some more of the lube into his palm, then reached back with the other hand to thoroughly lube up Momo's cock with it. The purple eyed boy groaned at the feel of his lover's small hand stroking him. Then Echizen lifted himself, positioning the head at the opening of his body. He bit his lip as he began to push it inside of himself, and Momo cried out and grabbed at his hip with his good hand. “Ahh, Echizen!" he rasped as the green haired boy relentlessly pushed himself backwards, a little at a time, taking Momo in. He grimaced as he was stretched, stopping for a moment as he sat with his head hanging, waiting to adjust to the feel of having Momo inside of him. Then he gritted his teeth and slid the rest of the way down, making a sound of pain in the back of his throat as his fingers scrabbled at Momo’s skin.

It felt so good to be inside of him at last! Momo could barely think, but he did somehow find his voice enough to ask “Are you all right, Echizen?” His boyfriend lifted his head, and he could see the glint of pain in the bronze-gold stare, as well as a gleam of pleasure. The boy nodded slowly, still unmoving, waiting for his body to relax and adjust to the invasion of the thick thing inside of him. 

After a little while, Echizen put out his hands and splayed them across Momo’s chest. Tentatively he lifted his hips a bit, and then pushed back downward. Momo groaned loudly, trying to stay still and let Echizen set the pace. It was so hard; he was so hot inside, so tight, and it felt so good that he thought that his brain was going to explode at any moment. But somehow he managed to still his hips, and Echizen slowly but surely began to rock himself on Momo’s cock, as little sounds of combined pain and pleasure were driven from his lips.

Soon enough, those sounds became louder and were only of pleasure. Echizen began to surge on Momo, his mouth hanging open as he gasped desperately for breath. Momo’s face was twisted, and his good hand tightened on his lover’s hip like a vise grip. The sight of Echizen riding him, crying out in pleasure with his head thrown back, was almost too much for him to take. On a particularly hard plunge, the tip of his cock ran over Echizen’s prostate. The boy screamed, his back arching and his body convulsing. Momo slid his hand down Echizen’s hip and grasped his neglected cock firmly. He needed to help Echizen come, and soon, because there was no way that he could hold out himself for much longer. He stroked his little lover as Echizen repeated the movement that brought him such pleasure. The combination of Momo’s hand on him and the feel of his cock running over that sweet spot inside of him were too much for him. He came hard, spurting over Momo’s hand and chest, crying out Momo’s name in ecstasy. Momo shuddered and groaned loudly as Echizen’s convulsing internal muscles closed over his cock like a fist and finished him off.

The green haired boy fell forward over his lover’s chest. He panted wildly, his sweat soaked form trembling with little aftershocks of pleasure. Momo curled his good arm over Echizen’s shoulders protectively, resting his forehead against his lover’s as they both basked in the afterglow. Damn, that had been good, Momo thought languidly. Better even than he thought it might be. He’d never felt so much pleasure with his other lovers - but then, none of them had been Ryoma. “I love you, Echizen” he whispered, beginning to stroke the sweat coated skin under his fingers lovingly.

Echizen blinked as his mind returned a bit from outer space. He smiled as he leaned forward, Momo still inside of him, and gently kissed his lover on the mouth. “I love you, too, Momo” he murmured when he lifted his lips.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> decided to finish this one up. There could be a prequel(all about how Fuji and Tezuka got together) in the future if anybody wants one. If you do, comment and let me know. Otherwise, this story is a stand-alone. Hope you enjoyed it - DL

“So how did it go?” Fuji’s voice was impish. 

Momo glanced up at the prodigy, who was walking down the hallway next to him with his hands behind his back. He wanted to tell Fuji that it was none of his business, but after all Fuji had been very helpful. “It was great,” he said with a grin.

Fuji smiled, his eyes crinkling. “Wonderful. Did you use any of the things I brought you?”

Momo felt a faint blush spread up his cheekbones, as he thought of the box of sex toys that now rested under his bed. “No,” he said.

Fuji tssked. “Well, you’re welcome to keep them, Momo-chan. I’m sure that you’ll eventually get the urge to experiment.”

Momo wasn’t sure about that. But then, he didn’t know if Echizen might not want to use some of the toys eventually, since he’d expressed a certain amount of curiosity about them. He certainly wasn’t going to object or argue if his boyfriend got the urge to try some of them out. 

“Thanks, anyway, Fuji-senpai,” Momo continued. “I owe you one.”

Fuji shrugged easily. “You don’t owe me anything, Momo-chan. I like to help my friends.” There was a smile on his face that was almost sweet. 

For a fleeting moment, Momo could actually understand why Tezuka was so drawn to this man. It was a weird experience, to say the least. He shook his head a little, to clear it. When he looked again at Fuji’s face, the prodigy’s expression was normal. A small smirk graced his lips. Momo realized then that there was a lot more to Fuji than could be seen on the surface, things that he seldom showed to anyone. He wondered if Tezuka was aware of these hidden depths. He thought perhaps that he might be, which could explain a little of his fascination with his lover.

“Looks like we’re the last to arrive,” Fuji remarked, drawing his thoughts away from his idle musings. Momo looked up to see that everyone else had, indeed, already gathered at the cafeteria. He smiled when Echizen stood up from the bench and walked over to him, limping a little. He thought that his lover was the most beautiful thing that he’d ever seen. Echizen came up to him and took his hand, smiling a small secret smile at him. They shared that pride and pleasure that new lovers take in one another, and neither was aware when Fuji strolled away to join Tezuka.

Fuji glanced back over his shoulder as he set his hand at Tezuka’s waist. “They’re awfully cute, aren’t they?” the prodigy said with pardonable pride. His lover’s lips quirked a bit. “Yes, they are,” Tezuka agreed calmly. 

Fuji leaned a little against Tezuka’s hard, strong body. He let his bright blue eyes drift over the small gathered group, and there was a pleased look in his eyes. Inui and Kaidoh were sitting side by side on the bench, not exactly touching but definitely aligned towards one another. Oishi stood near the end of the bench with Eiji cuddled up to him. The red head lay against his lover’s chest contentedly. Kawamura and Kinoko were talking together near the bulletin board, and Fuji could clearly see that they were holding hands. Echizen was leaning over Momo’s wheelchair, his bronze-gold eyes resting on Momo’s face with a soft look in their depths. Momo had one hand resting on one of Echizen’s, and he practically radiated happiness. 

The romantic, sweet part of Fuji, that he carefully concealed from the rest of the world, felt satisfaction. No one, not even Tezuka, was aware of the fact that he had been the engineer behind these happy relationships. Not only with Momo and Echizen, either. He’d given Oishi a nudge in high school, because the man was sweet but a little clueless. He’d had no idea that Eiji yearned after his doubles partner secretly. And he’d encouraged Kaidoh to make a move on Inui, pointing out to the Viper that there was no way that the data specialist would ever do anything, because he thought Kaidoh was straight. He’d even suggested the showers in the locker room as the place for Kaidoh to make his move. And it had been he who’d suggested to Momo that the pretty girl in his class might like Kawamura, so why didn’t he set them up on a date? 

Yes, he was Machiavellian. But it had all been in a good cause. His friends were all happily paired up with the people who were perfect for them. And perhaps one day, later on, he’d crow about his success to others. For now, he was content to just preen internally, taking silent pride in his accomplishments.

“Fuji,” Tezuka breathed softly.

“Hmmm?” Fuji looked dreamily up into his lover’s face, and Tezuka drew in a sharp breath. He liked it when Fuji’s face got that expression on it, and he had a fleeting thought that perhaps that boy’s bathroom might need another baptizing, and soon. He put out a hand and touched Fuji’s pointed chin. 

“Maybe I don’t say this often,” Tezuka said gravely to his surprised lover, “but I always feel it. I love you, Fuji Syusuke.”

Fuji’s blue eyes widened, until they appeared to take up half of his face. He gaped at Tezuka, shocked into silence. His normally non-demonstrative lover smiled at the expression on Fuji’s face, for once having thrown his lover for a loop, instead of the other way around. Still smiling, he bent his head and kissed Fuji in public, another thing he never did, despite the fact that they’d often had sex in some very public places. Fuji was still recovering himself when Tezuka finally raised his head, and his cheeks had a decidedly high color in them. He wrapped his arms around Tezuka’s waist, laying his forehead against the hard wall of his chest.

“I love you, too,” he said very, very softly.

“I know,” Tezuka replied simply. His hand stroked soft, shaggy brown hair gently. “Knowing that is what gets me through my day”. The simple sincerity in his voice was nearly Fuji’s undoing. Tears glimmered in his eyes, and he closed them to try to keep his image from being shattered. He was Fuji. Twisted, warped, and heartless. He did NOT bawl in public because his lover had said that he loved him. He felt Tezuka’s arms close around him, and he decided that, just this once, it didn’t matter. Image wasn’t everything. There were far more important things, including the man holding him close. The prodigy wept a few happy tears against his lover’s tunic, and fortunately for him everyone else was so busy with their own romances that no one noticed. 

 

The End


End file.
